Wishes
by thebookworm17
Summary: James and Lily are in there 6th year of Hogwarts and neither know how the other feels about them. Remus is doing his best to get them to realise this before they go crazy, or before Lily's secret enemy does damage that can't be repaired. Essentially fluff. I suck at reviews, don't judge.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hey guys, this is my first ever fanfic and I'm very excited. I do not, regretfully, own the Harry Potter story or any of its characters, and I would like to apologise in advance for all the spelling and grammatical eras, as I'm sure this is riddled with mistakes, please don't hate me for it! So yeah that's the boring stuff out the way and onto the fun…**

Chapter 1

Sirius was annoyed. He had been annoyed for a whole 5 minutes, which must have been the first time he had been annoyed without trying to cheer himself up. Ever. Even in the black house, if his mother had been shouting at him; being a disgrace, a blood traitor, filth etc. etc. he would have gone and talked to James and they would plan the next big marauder prank. It must have been a record.

Sirius glared at James, he was sitting on his bed, his chin in his hands and was looking morosely at the wall.

"For fuck sake." Sirius grumbled under his breath and he grabbed his pillow, using his wand he charmed it to levitate in the air, and sent it at James head at the speed of freight train. James was knocked side ways and off the bed with a loud thump. When he sat up his glasses were eskew and his hair, dare it be possible, was _even_ messier. Remus looked up from his book which he had been reading quietly on his bed.

"What the hell Sirius?!" James shouted "What is your problem?!" Sirius was still annoyed.

"You! Could you please forget about 'her' for half an hour, we need to decide the big Halloween prank. I'm thinking: turning the Slytherin robes bright pink and have FABULOUS stamped across the back in purple." James went bright pink at the mention of 'her'.

"And how exactly do we plan to do this?" Remus enquired, even though he was the quietest of The Marauders, it did not mean he didn't enjoy being one just as much as the others. "Something in their drinks or some kind of collective spell that is cast on them when they are all in the great hall. Wait the chances of at least one of the Slytherins seeing us cast the spell would be high, we'll need to distract them first. Fillybuster's?

"No we used them at Christmas, don't want to become cliché, do we?" James added, this made Sirius instantly happier, as soon as James stopped thinking about 'her' he was much more fun to be around, however it seemed that Sirius was still not forgiven as James threw a glare his way.

"True, true," Remus said pensively, "Hmm, what about an animal of sorts?"

"Ooooooh, a mad cow!" Sirius answered back excitedly. Remus laughed.

"A mad _pink_ cow." James added with a grin.

"Wait…wait," Remus said between laughs, "Where are we gonna get a mad pink cow?

"Transfigure something, someplace; we can work out the finer details in the library." James said.

"Perfect lets go now, I think peters still down there" Remus added, and they jumped off their beds and dashed towards the door and raced down to the common room.

Lily looked up from Hogwarts: A History. James, Sirius and Remus came thundering down the stairs. James and Sirius raced each other to the portrait hole, each leaping over books and in James cases, people, each in an animalistic way that matched their anamagi counterpart. Yes Lily knew all about that, Remus was her one of her best friends, much to James annoyance. She had noticed the monthly signs and had put two and two together, then had realised what his friends had done for him.

One particular night, after sneaking back into Hogwarts curtsey of a laughably awful date, she had seen James, Sirius and Peter racing down the grass towards the whomping willow and had gazed in awe as they had leapt into the air and had landed as a stag, dog and what Lily had later learnt to be a rat. Lily had never told Remus straight out that she knew about his furry little problem, but he knew she knew after visiting him with a large bar of chocolate on a night after and asking him which part of the forbidden forest they had been exploring.

He hadn't even been surprised that she knew, always knowing that because of how bright she was she would work it out anyway. Remus had then become one of Lily's best friends, especially after the ordeal with Severus. James had been more than happy to curse Snape into oblivion, however if Lily had wanted Severus to be in pain she would have given him her standard Bogey-Bat hex. What she wanted was a shoulder to cry on and her two best friends, Alice and Marlene had been able to provide that and had promised to never tell anyone, Lily was a woman of pride after all. But Remus had been someone to talk to when she had felt her most venerable and she would always be grateful to him for that.

Remus too dashed past Lily, who grabbed his sleeve, pulling him back momentarily.

"Where are you all going in a rush?" She asked suspiciously, it took no imagination at all to think of them going off to set something on fire, or blowing the entrance hall up.

"The library," Remus answered innocently "No we are not going to go do something stupid." He said already knowing what she was thinking.

"No you're going to the library to go and research _how_ too do something stupid" She sighed, going back to her book.

Remus just grinned.

However, at that point James burst back into the common room. The fat lady's complaints audible over the noise of the common room.

"Come on Mooney," He shouted over the din. "Mad pink cows, remember?" Remus laughed at Lily's quizzical look, jumped over the sofa and ran out of the common room.

Ten minutes later The Marauders were sitting around a desk covered in every transfiguration and collective spell book they could find. The way The Marauders would work was that there was usually more than one section to a plan. They would split into pairs and the different pairs would be responsible for the different sections of the plan. James, being the strongest at transfiguration, was tackling the cow with peter. Sirius and Remus were working on the collective spell. The latter task was more difficult as they had not covered collective spells, well alright if you looked at it difficulty wise the cow was more advanced but The Marauders were possibly the best people in the school at transfiguration, including the seventh years but excluding the teachers.

They had already decided how they were going to do the spell but finding the right one to fit the situation was tricky.

"There's no way around it, we are going to have to use a potion." Remus said exhaustedly.

"Well, although my potion and transfiguration skills are tip top, I think this may be a little out of my league." Sirius muttered his chin resting on the desk, his eyes closed in concentration.

James being very the most adept at transfiguration, already knew how he was going to do his half of the task, once he'd practised a couple times in the room of requirement he'd be ready for Halloween.

"What's wrong guys?" He asked, looking up from his book.

"Well the magic required is really quite incredible, and as Sirius regretfully pointed out, it's out of our league, we'd need to brew a NEWT level potion and then transfigure the potion after that. If anything went wrong we could potentially poison the Slytherins, and before you start grinning," Remus added quickly, "I am not going to let you do this if you're going to accidentally kill someone."

"Aww Mooney, you're no fun!" Sirius said loudly.

Madam Pince glared at Sirius. He blew her a kiss.

"Yes well, call me rule abiding, but I am not going to poison anybody and end up in Azkaban for it." Remus said, nose already returning to the book he was skimming through.

"Rule abiding." Sirius and James said together, laughing at there unexpected unison, peter joining in. Remus just huffed under his breath.

Lily walked down to the Library, she decided she was going to finish her transfiguration essay down there, she didn't actually need the library to finish her assignment but, but… Well she knew it definitely didn't have anything to do with 'Him' being down there.

She walked in and inhaled the lovely scent of old pages and smiled to herself, wandering down the rows hoping to find 'Him- wait no… she hoped to find The Marauders (she amended mentally), because she wanted to discuss the essay with Remus. 'Him' being there would be an added bonus. But they weren't.

"I don't suppose you were looking for ja…" Lily whirled around and slapped a hand over Remus' mouth; he had seen her strolling through the Library and had guessed as much as to why she was there.

"Shhhhhh!" She whispered at him, peering round checking no one had heard and she pushed him into a deserted row of books on Grindylows, Hinkypunks and Red Caps. Remus just rolled his eyes.

James, at that point walked into the Library to find Remus who had stayed behind to put away all the books, just in time to watch 'Her' push one of his best friends into a secluded area of the Library.

How could Remus do that to him? He knew they were friends, they had been for ages, even when James had been incessantly asking Lily out. He had thought she was friends with Remus just to annoy him. He had never considered they might be anything more than that. He crept up to the bookshelf behind them and listened in. He knew it was wrong but he needed to know.

"Geez, Lily, when are you going to wake up, why don't you just tell him you like him?" Remus asked soothingly.

What? Who was it that Lily liked, what was so great about this other guy, what did he have that James didn't?

"Because it would never work!" Lily seethed. "There is no point getting my hopes up over something that will either: 1) never happen or 2) wont be long enough to be worth it and then 3) end in me being upset and, and… well there's just no point, anyway he's moved on, we agreed we'd be friends." Lily looked down into her hands, her whispered out-burst seemed to have calmed her down.

Remus saw how deflated she had become and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in for a hug. James was so jealous of Remus in that moment that he couldn't bare it. He walked away from the book shelf and out of the Library.

He knew that Remus hadn't betrayed him but he wished with all his might that he could've been him in that moment. He wished Lily trusted him like that. He wished, he wished…

Remus groaned internally. Try as he might, he hadn't managed to get Lily to say James name, he knew he was there, the full moon was tonight and it meant Remus' senses had sharpened. He had sensed and smelt James through the bookshelf. But still neither of them knew how the other felt.

It was driving him barmy. They were so busy thinking about each other, stealing glances while the other was not looking that they had been driven blind. Alice and Marlene knew Lily's feelings towards James but not James's towards Lily. Sirius and Peter knew James's feelings towards Lily but not Lily's towards James.

Remus was stuck in the middle, sworn to secrecy by them both unable to tell them the others feelings, he just kept on trying to bring them together, to confess their love to each other without him actually telling either of them.

But it was impossible truly, truly impossible.

Lily pulled away from the hug, sniffing a little but not crying, she was a woman of pride and Remus respected her for that.

"I've got to go," Lily muttered and turned away before ducking out of the library, bag swinging on her shoulder.

Remus gazed around at the books, so much knowledge concealed between the millions of books, he ran his finger along the spins, wishing for knowledge he knew was not between pages. Sighing as he thought of his two friends, he knew there was no hope; he was just going to have to let them figure it out themselves and hope for the best.

 **A/N Well there you go, the first chapter, I know it was a bit slow and short, VERY short, but I figured you kinda needed the back story, the people involved, the inbetween etc. will hopefully start picking it up a bit now. Please do review so I know whether or not to continue the story, thanks.**

 **The Bookworm x**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Well hello lovelies, so glad to rejoin you in this wonderful world of fiction. I'd write some kind of summary or explanation to this chapter but I figured it would take time and effort and I possess neither. You can read it yourself you lazy good-for-nothings!**

8888888

Chapter 2

Peter gazed over at James, it was two days till Halloween and they were in the room of requirement practising. Remus and Sirius had mastered collective spells and the cow was coming along nicely but James was out of it, Remus kept glancing over at him. His eyes were calculating.

"What's wrong with Prongs?" He asked Sirius under his breath.

"What's ever wrong with dear old Prongsie?" Sirius sighed back. "Certain red-headed issues."

"Okay, what's happened this time?" Peter reasoned.

"Apparently he overheard her talking about a massive crush she has on another guy and of course that's sent him into super sensitive mode." 

"Oh dear," Peter groaned "I don't like super sensitive mode, he's no fun."

"You're telling me," Sirius muttered back. "Oi Prongs," Sirius shouted over the room. "Wanna come and do some Quidditch practise, I'm heading down the pitch anyway."

"Do I even want to know why?" Remus asked tiredly.

"Of course you do, I'm meeting Janie Howard down there at nine, and I figured we could get some practise in before,

"Nah its fine I'm getting up tomorrow early with the team anyway." James responded dully.

This worried Peter a lot, and judging from Sirius's and Remus's faces it shocked them too.

James _never_ turned down Quidditch or any form of practise; it was quite possibly his greatest joy in life. The fact that he had turned it down was a bad sign, a very bad sign indeed.

88888888

The next evening, Remus and Lily were sitting in a corner of Gryffindor tower, side by side, drinking some butter beer that Remus had produced. The light from the fire shone through the glasses and illuminated there faces

"Why don't you try talking to him more, you guys are friends now after all, and you'd get to, well, talk to him." Remus reasoned to Lily.

"I guess," She said quietly, it was nice to have someone to talk to James about. She spoke to Marlene and Alice but they were obsessed with the belief James liked her back and Lily hated allowing herself that small hopeful dream, Remus never assumed anything like that. He just let her talk. But she was still shy about the subject,

At that moment James came in through the portrait hole, dripping wet, his hair sticking up _everywhere,_ Sirius came in behind, their Quidditch robes were soaked and there brooms were over their shoulders both they were both very expensive models. Sirius shaking his dark hair out in a very dog like manner that splashed the girls close by, they shrieked and giggled, Sirius winked at them and Lily could've sworn she saw some of them actually swoon, she almost hated her gender for it stupid ways sometimes.

James saw them together and gave her a small smile. She swore she could feel her heart swell at the gesture. But then he was gone striding away to the boys dormitory, probably to go to a shower.

"-Lily? Have you listened to anything I've been saying for the past two minutes?" Remus asked in an exasperated voice.

"Yes communication, with James, great, great…" She muttered still staring at the stairs where he had left.

"You know, I think I liked it better when you hated him, when you thought he was am arrogant toe-rag." Remus laughed.

"Yes well then he changed…." She murmured off, still not concentrating.

"Took my advice, I knew you'd like him better when he stop behaving like a prick." Remus continued to chuckle, before easing himself up and saying goodnight.

"Goodnight." She said with a small smile, before redirecting her gaze to the roaring fire once more.

88888888

 _Damn_ James thought, she had looked so God damn pretty by the fire, her red hair had been shimmering so beautifully, much like the fire in the grate but her eyes had been sad and he couldn't work out why, he hoped it wasn't this damn crush.

Remus bounded into the dormitory and plopped himself down on his bed.

"Hey," James said "Why did Lily look so sad?"

"Er well, she has a lot on her plate at the second." Remus mumbled before quickly adding, "You should go talk to her."

"You think she would talk to me?" He sat up straighter, eyes wider, brighter.

"Yes of course, you guys are friends now after all; then again you might want to take a shower first." Remus said smiling.

James all but bounded off the bed, in the rush to have his shower; he could hear Remus behind him, laughing.

Five minutes later, he was washed and dressed and he tried to walk down the stairs at a normal pace, he spotted Lily by the fire and it used all his self control not to run over to her and skid into her arms.

He dropped down beside her and smiled at her, not a smirk, he knew she hated that smirk; Remus had informed him of that. She smiled back, a genuine smile, and he thought he might burst with happiness.

"Hey," He whispered softly too her, she looked back at her bottle of butter beer; her eyes looked like shimmering emeralds in the light from the fire.

"Hey." She murmured back.

"Are you okay? You looked really sad when I came in, you can tell me." He said genuinely, he wanted her to be happy and he'd do just about anything to make that happen.

"Ur well, my sister…"

"Petunia." He said knowledgably, noticing her stare he added, "You've mentioned her before," he said quickly.

"Ur right, well, she's well she sent me this." She thrust a piece of paper into his hands and looked away while he read:

 _Dear freak,_

 _Yes well I just have the most wonderful of news, Vernon proposed!_

 _Can you believe it? I'm still overwhelmed. Mother says_

 _I have to send you an invite but you are most definitely not invited_

 _You must tell mum you can't come, some freaky Hogwarts thing with your freaky Hogwarts friends, you understand,_

 _Not awaiting your reply_

 _Mrs. Petunia Dursley_

"That's horrible," He said in outrage, he couldn't believe how someone could be so mean to her, for not reason

"Yes well I guess that's Tuney," She whispered to her glass, "And the worst thing is my mother is really disappointed in me for saying I can't come, actually she's not just disappointed, she disgusted…" Lily voice cracked and she got abruptly and tried to dash away, but James grabbed her hand, one silent tear was weaving its way down her face, before he could stop himself he brushed it away, his hands stroking her face, her beautiful green eyes were dancing with the tears welling around them.

"Lily you have nothing, to be ashamed of, you are doing something for your sister, whether she deserves it or not," He could not stop the anger that crept into his voice, he realised that his hand was still resting on her cheek and he dropped it, he noticed he was attracting stares from The Marauders, dotted around the room and Lily's friends a like.

Lily managed a small smile before backing away and running up the stairs for the girl's dormitory before any more tears could fall.

James watched her go, his concern etched onto his fac,e as he watched Marlene and Alice dash up the stairs after her.

88888888

"What did he say?" Marlene growled, her anger was plain as day, "First you were sitting talking and looking, well, couply I guess and then BAM, your crying and he looks angry but he's holding your cheek." Marlene emphasised this all with wild hand gestures that almost knocked over Lily's bedside table lamp.

"What happened Lils?" Alice asked quietly, she was worried about her.

"Don't worry, it wasn't like that, I was sitting there thinking about Tuney's letter, and then he came over and sat down and asked if I was alright because I looked sad. So I showed him the letter and told him about my mum, and then I started crying and I tried to leave but he grabbed my hand and told me I had nothing to be ashamed of, then he wiped away a tear and well I guess he looked angry because he doesn't like the way Petunia's treating me" She finished, a fresh tear rolling down her cheek.

Alice sat down next to her and wiped away the tear with a sympathetic smile.

Marlene, however, was grinning from ear to ear.

"He likes you!" She exclaimed "Oh I can feel it!" She sighed looking at Alice and Lily with a mad grin

"But…" Lily tried to start but was interrupted almost immediately.

"Look Lily, James Potter does not go around telling all sad girls that they have nothing to be ashamed of, he's nice, don't get me wrong, but he just doesn't do that."

"It's true," Alice muttered next to me.

I sighed. I wanted what they said to be true, with all my heart, but I just couldn't believe it. James had changed, he had matured and his silly crush on me had changed too. From raging… to none existent.

"Any who," Alice interrupted "Halloween costumes, what we gonna do?"

"What?" Lily asked.

"OMG I forgot to tell you, oh Merlin I'm stupid! We got invited to a massive Halloween party in Hogsmeade, everyone's dressing up, and we have to too!" Alice shrieked.

"OMG yeah, I forgot too!" Marlene shrieked. "Oh what the hell are we gonna do?!"

"Guys relax it's just a party," We'll figure something out, she smiled at there stressed faces.

"It's TOMORROW!" They shrieked together.

Lily paled slightly; she'd forgotten that it was Halloween tomorrow. Oh dear Merlin what where they going to do, James would be there, she might get to talk to him, oh sweet baby Jesus, she had to look fantastic.

The girls worked long into the night, once they had decided what they were going to be they created there costumes, transfiguring bits of old clothes into the ones they wanted, and by one in the morning they did indeed have fantastic outfits.

Lily grinned at her friends. Tomorrow was gonna be one hell of a day.

 **A/N Well there you have it chapter two, well they're talking I guess which is a good start, hmm still snail pace though. Well I guess I can fix that. Please do review and tell me your thoughts and what not, suggestions always helpful, will hopefully have the next chapter up sooooooon**

 **The Bookworm xx**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Well hello there my chickies, yes new chapters, fresh meat etc. etc. Would like to give a shout out to emmaxxclaire for the wonderful words of wisdom and support. And now for your entertainment, I give you *Drum roll* Chapter 3! …**

Chapter 3

Lily woke up abruptly, at first she wasn't sure why, but there was something on her chest…

Lily screamed as she saw two round yellow eyes

"Lily! Calm down, calm down it's just an owl!" Alice yelled.

Lily jumped out of the bed, breathing very fast. The owl in question was a large brown eagle owl, and she recognised it very quickly.

"Isn't that James's o…?" Alice began but stopped as Lily dived for the owl and grabbed the small package from its leg. The owl was shocked by Lily's impulsive actions and it ruffled its feathers disapprovingly before taking off and soaring out the open window.

"Did an owl just throw me shade?" Alice asked incredulously her eyebrows already in her hairline. Lily would have laughed but she was too busy ripping into the package she had received

The parcel was simply with a small note attached in a small spindly script

 _Lily,_

 _Happy Halloween! Make sure your at the great feast tonight, you won't regret it I promise!_

 _James_

Lily unwrapped the small package next, inside was a chocolate frog.

"Aww he bought you a present." Alice squeaked out, she was grinning like a cat that had got the cream.

Lily swatted her shoulder but she too was trying very hard not to smile.

"I wonder what he meant about the great feast though," She mused. "Of course I wasn't going to miss it anyway, I love the Halloween feast, but why should I definitely not miss it?" She frowned slightly at the note, but then remembering the sentiment and grinned again. Today had started very well.

"Merlin only knows with those Marauders, they're probably going to perform some death defying act in front of the entire school, then implode or something and at the end walk through the doors and pretend to have no clue why people are staring at them." Alice and Lily laughed at the mental images forming in their minds, realising just how like them it would be.

Marlene walked in then from taking a shower, dressed in her robes and Alice immediately informed her of the note, Marlene's reaction was quite similar to Alice's but it involved a lot more squealing and jumping and nursery rhymes about James and Lily sitting in trees.

Ten minutes later then were walking down to the entrance hall when they were ambushed by The Marauders who were walking towards the great hall for breakfast as well, Lily had never walked to breakfast with them all before and it involved a lot running down banisters and flipping off rails.

Lily managed to talk to Remus quickly though and she informed him of the present she had got from James, she couldn't keep the smile from her lips, so she stared resolutely at the ground in the hope he wouldn't see. He did.

"Just ask him out already!" Remus groaned in a whisper to her

"No." She said sharply back, "I will not humiliate myself by being rejected." Remus longed to tell her that she would not be rejected but he kept quiet.

"Lily," James doubled back from where he was talking to Sirius. "Hey." He said happily.

"Hi, thanks for my chocolate frog," She said and she could not keep the blush from her cheeks. James beamed.

"Well I figured you could use some cheering up." He said it lightly but she knew he was talking about there conversation from last night.

She just smiled, trying not to think about he sister.

Her lessons that day flew by in a blur and before long they were depositing there bags in there dormitories and getting there costumes ready for after the feast

"So the party's in Hogsmeade, at nine. Sirius showed me a way to get out of Hogwarts without drawing attention to ourselves. We are going to have a fabulous night." Alice concluded eyes shining.

"Yes well we are gonna miss out on a fabulous meal soon if we don't get our butts down to the great hall pronto." And with that Marlene frog marched Alice and Lily down the stairs.

Lily, Marlene and Alice sat down at the Gryffindor table just as the plates filled with food and they dug in marvelling at the hundreds of live bats fluttering around and the jack-o-lanterns hovering in the air.

Five minutes into the meal however Lily noticed The marauders were all looking at their watches and counting down to something, she watched as James drew his wand and muttered something at a pea that had been knocked from the table and was sitting proudly a couple of feet in front of the teachers table.

There was a loud pop and suddenly a large cow was standing in front of the teachers, it was rather unusual cow in the fact that it was bright pink and mooing rather aggressively.

The Marauders were grinning at each other, Lily watched now as Sirius drew his wand, while everyone else was looking at the cow, that now looked like it was about to run at the teachers, Sirius pointed his wand at the pumpkins above the Slytherin table. They burst into thousands of what appeared to be water droplets, the Slytherins were shrieking in outrage now as they were drenched with the liquid and suddenly their robes too turned bright pink, the word FABULOUS stamped across the back in purple.

The hall burst out laughing as the Slytherins yelled out in outrage, trying their very hardest to change their robes back.

The Marauders were laughing their heads off as they watched the chaos they had caused.

The cow was still mooing angrily at the teachers and poor Professor Flitwick looked terrified, Albus was smiling bemusedly at the cow before he started to, what seemed to sound like, communicate with it, mooing and tossing his head around, the cow responding and Albus looked over at James, Sirius, Remus and Peter who looked back at Dumbledore. Dumbledore shook his head laughing quietly to himself; he spoke to Hagrid quickly before saying something to the cow and watching as Hagrid lead the poor pink creature away.

After the fiasco at dinner the school was a buzz of gossip, everyone knew who had done it but nobody quite knew how.

Lily ran over to Remus who was walking towards the boy's dormitory she jumped onto his back, piggy-back style.

"Genius!" She shouted in his ear. He grinned up at her before spinning her round so that she slid of his back. "How did you do that?!"

"Sorry, Marauders honour." He laughed back at her, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

"Whatever James Bond" She laughed and punched his arm lightly before running up the stairs to go get changed.

By eight o'clock, they were dressed, make upped and crawling through the passage from the one eyed witch.

"Remind me again why we are going an hour early." Marlene, who was dressed as the devil in a beautiful red sparkly dress that accentuated her curved body, grumbled to Alice.

"Because it takes a while to get there, then we may need to touch up our makeup and I don't know about you but I'd quite like to have a quick drink before we go to the actual party." Alice replied, evenly. Alice was dressed as a vampire and had transfigured her long dark dress with a large slit up the side that showed off her shapely legs to have a cape that billowed behind her, she had also transfigured two of her teeth to be large and pointy, like actual fangs.

Lily was dressed as a cat, in a black dress that hugged her body nicely; she had used eyeliner to paint a little cat nose and whiskers onto her face and she had transfigured her school shoes into some strappy heels that showed off her black painted toe nails. Even she was impressed with the way her costume had turned out.

Marlene had even gone as far to say that if James didn't look at her she wasn't sure he was straight. Lily had blushed profusely at the flattery.

They wriggled out of the tunnel, careful not to rip their dresses and crept out of the Honeydukes cellar. They did indeed go to the three broomsticks for touch ups and pre drinks before heading on to the party. As they walked towards the clearing where they could here loud booming music, they noticed half of the sixth years were walking with them towards the party all dressed in an assortment of different costumes.

The climbed over a style and came to a large clearing, a white tent had been erected and underneath most of the sixth and seventh years were dancing to the loud music that seemed to flow from everywhere and surround them like a bubble of noise, Lily recognised The Four Horses new album playing. They were walked over to the tent before Alice shouted orders.

"Marlene, find Sirius, oh shut up you know you like him," She shouted over Marlene's protests. "Lily you go find James, you can totally get him to rethink that 'non-existent' crush in that dress," Lily grinned hoping Alice was right.

"And you go find Frank," She shouted back to Alice. "You too have been flitting round each other for too long; just ask him out already, you know he's too shy to ask you." Alice blushed profusely before grabbing Lily and Marlene and pushed them ahead of her into the mess of bodies, dancing in front of them.

88888888

James was looking round the dance floor, marvelling at all their hard work, it had taken ages to get everything ready for the party, but news had spread and people had managed to get out for the gathering, well gathering was a weak word for the hundreds of people in front of him.

Sirius bounded up to him, ditching the girl he had been grinding up against and grabbed James arm.

"Have you _seen_ Lily and her friends?" He asked excitedly. "Damn they look gorgeous," However at that moment he did indeed see Lily and he swore he felt his jaw hit the floor. Sirius chuckled under his breath. She was dressed in a black dress that did nothing to hide the fact that Lily had matured, she was no eleven year old girl anymore, and she was indeed gorgeous. She swayed toward them moving in time with the beat, green eyes looking intently at him.

"Hey," She shouted at him over the noise. James could not speak. "James?" She asked her voice sounded concerned, but her eyes were bright, she knew what she was doing to him and she was enjoying it.

"Shuwandancwifme?" He asked, his brain and his mouth were not working amazingly well together.

"What?" She asked back confused. Sirius rolled his eyes and pushed James forward. He tripped and stumbled into her, realising he was at just the right height, he whispered in her ear.

"Do you want to dance with me?" He felt her nod, and he pulled her into the dance floor with him.

Sirius laughed at his best friend before he too prowled off into the dance floor to find Marlene.

 **A/N Well hmmm what's gonna happen, will everything go well, or badly wrong, who knows? Well I guess I know but that's just me being smug, emmaxxclaire I'm getting to your suggestion but It's gonna have to be next chapter so until then, please do review and give me your suggestions/cristisms and I will get back to you.**

 **The Bookworm xx**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Hmmm well I don't really have anything to say in this authors note, so I guess, on with the chapter?**

Chapter 4

Lily rolled over and sighed her sheets were warm and cosy, but she was awake which meant she could no longer evade the memories of last night from rolling on in with the forgetful fog of sleep, which, for the past couple of hours, had been her saving grace. How could she have been so stupid, let her guard slip like that. And where in the name of Merlin's hot-pants did that leave her and James, She groaned. Again.

"Ooooooh, you sound ruff. Really ruff. How much did you drink last night?" Alice asked plonking herself down next to Lily's head.

There had been alcohol at the party, firewhiskey and lots of it, but Lily had had very little, and she certainly hadn't been drunk.

"Literally nothing, I managed to do something ridiculously stupid, and I was sober! I dread to think what I would've done if I had been drunk." She moaned again.

"What did you do, what was so terrible?" Marlene jumped in her internal sensors, must have picked up some potential gossip.

Lily dodged the question, "Hey, wait what happened to you guys? I couldn't find you anywhere so I came back alone."

"Same, I looked for you guys but I was so tired that I walked back with Frank, and yes he left me at the portrait hole, and yes he was a perfect gentlemen and yes I am still a virgin." Marlene's head drooped at Alice's partially prepared speech. If Marlene had ears they would've pricked once Alice had mentioned Frank.

Lily giggled softly.

"So what happened?" Marlene demanded from Alice. Alice's ducked her head.

"I don't want to talk about it." Alice muttered, she stood up and walked to the bathroom. Marlene's head swivelled to Lily.

"Me neither." She murmured, staring at the socks she was pulling on, they were green with cauldrons on them.

Marlene muttered something about Nuns, secrets, and an MI6 opening she had heard about.

By lunch time Lily could see Marlene was about to burst and she quickly suggested that they go back to the dormitories. Alice noticing Marlene's tells tale signs of an explosion was swift to agree.

They barely made it there in time.

"What the actual fuck, is going on?!" She shouted loud enough that Lily was worried people in the common room might hear. "You," She pointed at Lily, "You see James in the corridor, go the colour of a sunburnt tomato, and practically drag us in the opposite direction." She glared at Lily, before rounding on Alice, "And you! Frank walks up behind you and asks to talk, and you drop everything all over the floor, forget you're a fucking witch, and try to pick it all up by hand, before ditching it and run into the nearest loo, leaving us," She gestured to herself and Lily pointedly, "To clear up your mess, both physically and emotionally, you should have seen Franks face, poor sods head dropped right down into the fucking dungeons!" Alice looked fairly close to tears. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON! And I swear to god if you two don't fess up I'm gonna… I'm gonna kill a bitch!" She looked round viciously

Lily looked at Marlene in shock, who subsequently fell face first onto Alice's bed right next to her.

"I'm sorry; I need to get that out." She said, although it was rather hard to tell as her voice was muffled by the bed clothes. But the damage was done, there were tears leaking down Alice's face. Marlene sat up, eyes full of remorse as she pushed herself up and started wiping away her tears.

"I'm sorry Alice." She murmured in a much softer voice.

"It's not you," She groaned, her head in her hands, Lily walked over and sat on her other side, slinging her arm over Alice's shoulder. "I'm angry at myself, for doing that to him. He's such a nice guy, he doesn't deserve it." She took a deep breath. "I'll tell you guys what happened on the understanding that Lily you tell your story as well and it never leaves this room."

"Durr." Marlene said jokingly, bringing a sad sort of smile to Alice's lips.

"Well after you guys were dragged off by the crowd I sort of drifted in and allowed it to sort of take me away I wasn't really paying attention and suddenly I was dancing with Frank we were just sort of swaying, and he asked if I wanted a drink, and I said yes I would like one, so off he went and a couple of minutes later I felt him come up behind me and sort of start to grind into me." Lily and Marlene's raised eyebrows were enough to make her blush deep red. "It gets worse. After a couple of minutes I feel him start to press his face up against my chin and start to kiss my neck, and, and it wasn't Frank who I was dancing with, because suddenly I see him over by the drinks table watching me, I don't know who it was, some seventh year, and I turn around in shock and he kisses me and I'm trying to get away but I see frank leave out of the corner of my eye…" Tears were falling down her face in earnest.

"But I thought you said you walked home with him." Marlene added, confused.

"Well once that happened I wasn't in the mood to party much so I tried to find you guys but I couldn't so I just left, but on my way up to the castle I saw Frank, so I rushed up to him. But he, he…" she sobbed heartbrokenly. "He didn't care, when I tried to explain, he said I wasn't his girlfriend and it wasn't his business. I tried to tell him I loved him but he walked away, I could've sworn he heard because I thought I saw him tense up, but, well I was wrong wasn't I!" She broke down in fresh sobs her eyes were red and swollen now.

"Oh you poor baby," Lily cooed, rocking her against her chest. "But Frank tried to talk to you, he might of heard, he might've been trying to say he loved you too."

"Big strain on might've. I can never look at him again."

"Oh dear," Marlene murmured. "Lily, you may as well start." Lily blushed but knew she had to tell them, she'd made a promise to Alice after all who still had silent tears leaking down her face, but was looking expectantly at her.

"Oh boy." And with that she began. "Well I got swept off by the crowd but I kind of gathered where James would be, he likes to survey his work, so I made my way over to the only point were you could kind of see over people, that sort of platformy place where they were sourcing the music. And well I walked up and I could tell he liked my costume, he was tripping over his words," She allowed herself a small smile at the memory of that euphoria. "He asked if I wanted to dance and I said yes and we danced. But then he dragged me off to one side, said he wanted to talk to me, but he didn't, he just looked at me and… I don't know why I did it but he was looking straight into my eyes and I kissed him. And he looked shocked and grossed out and I realised I had been so obsessed with the notion he might like me, I started to believe it and it just sort of happened and now he probably looks at me like I'm a slug or something."

"Well at least he doesn't just want you for sex." Marlene said with sad eyes.

"What?" I asked confused.

"The guys you're in love with, the one you've been in love with for a while, at least he doesn't just want you for a one night stand." She said bitterly. "I was dancing and he came up behind me, Sirius, and well he said I looked amazing and we danced for a bit. And then he took me for a walk, around that clearing and we talked about everything and then at the end he kissed me."

"That sounds really nice; he might actually be into y…" Alice began.

"But then," She carried on, "Things started to get a bit heated, we had been lying on the floors looking up at the sky, and when he kissed me at first he had still been lying down, but then he sort of got on top of me, and I sort of went along with it for a while, I wouldn't have actually slept with him but I thought we could fool around a bit. But then he started trying to un-zip my dress, and I didn't want it to be true so I got up off him, and I was sort of crying a little bit and I walked away and he looked confused and yeah…" Marlene finished

"You'd think at least one of us could've had a good night." Lily said bitterly.

"If only…" Alice murmured.

 **A/N Hey guys I know this was a really short chapter and really sad, but at least now you know what happened. Please do review and give me your suggestions. I will hopefully have more chapters up soooooon.**

 **The Bookworm xx**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY.**

 **Well apart from that nothing to report.**

Chapter 5

Remus was very confused, what had happened at the party had really shaken up the sixth years, James had been so happy he had been jumping hoops, that was until Lily had come and said she was very sorry for kissing him, that she was very drunk and she hoped that she hadn't jeopardised there friendship, that had brought him right back down to cloud 1.

Sirius was in a foul mood because he knew he had screwed up any chance he had with Marlene even though he really, really liked her. He didn't know why he had done it; it had almost become second nature. But know she thought everything he was doing was too get in her pants, and it wasn't he really did like Marlene McKinnon.

And Frank, Frank had been silent and had barely spoken to anyone in days but was suffering a detention for a month for punching the seventh year boy who had kissed Alice, without her permission and then had tried to stop her getting away.

"Why did you apologise? Now he thinks it was an accident!" Remus was really exercising his self restraints because right now all he wanted to do was scream.

"Because it was, you should have seen his face he looked at me like I was some kind of particularly disgusting slug."

"That's just his shocked face, his nose goes all wrinkly, he developed that face from sneezing so much when Sirius jumped out at him and gave him a hay fever hex, in our second year!" Remus was breathing quite heavily now and he strode away, brain reeling. Well there was always Plan B, tonight was supposed to be a starry night.

Perfect.

88888888

Alice was in the library, working on her charms assignment, however she had been momentarily distracted by an anti-frizz spell in the book she had been skimming, she jotted it down while pulling at her blonde curls, but was distracted by someone pulling the chair opposite her.

She looked up and saw two very grey, and now she thought of it handsome, eyes looking her way. She glared at him and tried to go back to her work.

"Great so you hate me too." He groaned. Alice looked up at him, sighing.

"I don't hate anyone, but I strongly dislike you right now." He rolled his eyes.

"No I forgot the innocent Alice Prewett has never _hated_ anyone." He mocked

"Hmm well maybe I could make a special case for you," With a false smile. "What do you want Sirius, I assume this isn't a social call." Her eyes were glittering dangerously. Sirius dropped the act.

"I need your help." He said simply.

"Why? Do you need help with your potions homework?" She scoffed.

"Because you will help out two people, one of which will be your friend and I will give you something." Sirius said leaning back, eyes bright. He had had her at helping a friend but the something for her was extra intriguing. He smiled at her, he knew he held the cards.

"Two things: 1) What am I doing and 2) what do you possibly have that I might want?" She asked curiously.

"You are going to help get Marlene to love me, and I have a piece of information that might interest you." He had lost her at Marlene.

"How dare you!" She hissed under her breath careful not to attract attention from Mrs Pince. "You think I'm going to help you destroy one of my best friend's feelings?" She seethed.

"Look," Sirius muttered to her quietly over the table, all pretences gone, Alice had a feeling she was seeing the real Sirius Black. "I love Marlene, have done for about a year now, what happened at the party was me so happy that I was finally kissing the girl I wanted to kiss for so long that I went into overdrive, I had no idea what I was doing till she got up and left."

Alice was taken a back and she could tell what he was saying was true by the conviction in his grey eyes.

"Fine I'll help you, but just remember, I'm training to be an auror and if you hurt my best friend, if you so much as touch her when she doesn't want you too, I will put my training to good use" She threatened in a low voice. Sirius grinned at her. "How do you want me to get her to like you?"

88888888

Lily walked down the dormitory stairs to the common room, book in hand and plopped herself down into one of the squishy armchairs, slinging her feet over the side.

Remus walked over from where the marauders were playing exploding snap.

"Hey." He sat down on the floor smiling up at her.

"Hey," She smiled back down at him. "What do you want?" She asked curiously. He was still smiling.

"Nothing," He replied, innocently. "I just thought it's supposed to be a nice night. Great flying weather." He slipped in casually. Lily did not respond. "Aww come on Lils, you know you need to get out, you've been really stressed recently, and it will help." He tried to reason with her.

"You don't need to baby sit me Remus," She said through gritted teeth. "Anyway I was already going."

He grinned.

Unbeknown to Lily he went and repeated that conversation with James. He also had plans. Great.

8888888

I guess you could say Lily had a secret. A big one. And very few people knew about it, just her very best friends.

Lily slid onto her broom and kicked of the ground, soaring into the air with a burst of laughter.

Lily loved to fly. She loved the feeling of the wind in her hair, of the air stinging her eyes, and she was a very good flyer. She did not however try out for the Quidditch team, although she could easily have made it, because, well flying was something special to her, she didn't want to tarnish it with a desire to win.

She flew higher and higher, till the pitch beneath her felt unreal, like something in the back of a miniature doll house, before falling back to earth and swooping out of the dive so nimbly that it would have impressed Keaton Flintly, she could feel the grass graze her toes. She decided to start practising something that she had been working on for a while: standing on her broom.

Hovering only a few inches from the ground she lifted her self up and placed her feet on the wooden stick and gradually stood up. Grinning to herself she used her back foot to tilt the broom up slightly and she started to rise higher, Lily laughed and it felt like a while since she had properly laughed. She didn't know someone heard her.

88888888

James gazed up at Lily who was now hovering over the pitch, a deep look of concentration came over her and she took herself lower to the ground. He had been planning to have a private Quidditch practise on the pitch, after Remus's suggestion, but had gaped in shock as he came onto the pitch to see a redheaded girl falling from the clouds before pulling up in one of the most spectacular dives he had ever seen. He had been even more shocked to realise it was Lily. He had crept into the stands, hoping she wouldn't see him and was now watching as she was flying standing up on her broom.

But then something happened, Lily was a good few feet high when she suddenly lost consciousness. James swore he felt things slow down as Lily fell towards the earth. He whipped out his wand faster than he thought he had ever done before and shouted with all his might.

Lily stopped falling and started drifting slowly to the grass. James launched himself over the stands and sprinted out to the ground were she lay.

Her eyes were closed. James was panicking, could she have died from shock? She stirred in his arms, he calmed slightly but his heart was still pounding at 2000 beats a second. She must have fainted, but there was something wrong with the way she had fallen, she had been so controlled, had someone hexed her? He glanced around but saw no one.

"James?" Lily murmured.

"Oh Merlin, Lily, your alright!" He gazed down at her, eyes wide.

"What happened, everything just went black," She groaned holding her hand to her head.

"Don't freak out but I think someone just tried to kill you. There was no way that you lost control." He worried.

"Oh God! You know I can fly, you were watching me!" She shrieked. She tried to get out of his arms but she was still very dizzy and couldn't go very far. He shushed her, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Look I didn't know you were out here, I came to practise for the match on Saturday, okay? And you, you were flying like no one I've ever seen before," He was looking at her with reverence he couldn't believe this was the girl who'd always been so cryptic of Quidditch.

"Sort of, it's something I'm working on." She admitted sheepishly.

"If you can fly like that, why have you never tried out for the team, they'd probably kick people off just to let you on!" He said with a laugh.

"I haven't tried out for the team because I can't catch a ball to save my life and Quidditch butchers the amazing sensation of flying." James frowned, Lily persevered. "Have you ever flown your broom for the sole purpose of just flying?"

"Umm no, probably not." Lily gave him a 'Do-you-understand-now' kind of look. James thought, apart from when he was a child with a toy broom, he had always flown to improve and get better so he could be on the Gryffindor team, and then it was so he could win the game. He vowed to try flying without the intention of training or going anywhere, to just fly.

All through this Lily had lain in James arms and she was surprised by how comfortable and safe she felt, there was nothing awkward or uncomfortable…

"Look about Halloween…" well until then.

"Um yes well I was very drunk." She stated bluntly.

"No you weren't," He said defiantly "You'd only just arrived and I could smell no alcohol on you." He said looking straight down at her. "Just tell me why." He murmured.

"Ur, well, experimenting, you know, all that jazz and stuff." She finished lamely. He looked away, disappointed.

"Come on," He said moving her lightly and standing up, pulling her up with him. "feeling any better?" He asked, a malicious glint in his eye. Lily smiled carefully,

"Yes?" She said slowly. James grinned wider.

"I'll race yah to the castle!" And he bounded away and jumped onto his broom. Lily laughed grabbing her broom and hopping on, she was going to beat him if it was the last thing she did.

Lily won the race, and she could not wait to tell her friends all about her amazing evening. James and Lily laughed all the way up to Gryffindor tower, or they would have done if not for the fact that Argos Filch found them, James checked his watch and realised that with everything that had happened they were an hour over curfew.

"Shit." He muttered under his breath. Filch grinned.

 **A/N Ooooooh cliff-hanger? Or is it? DUH DUH DUUUHHHH! No one knows, not even me and that's worrying because I've got to right it! Don't worry guys I've got a plan. I am way too hyper to be writing chapters right now, oh well, please do review my lovelies it always nice to hear from you and I am a strong believer in the fact that critism is key and although it may be hard to find critism some times *wink, wink* you can always pass on suggestions. Have a lovely whatever.**

 **The Bookworm xx**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Urgh these authors' notes get really boring when you have nothing to say.**

Chapter 6

Lily gulped, oh dear Merlin, what was she going to do, she had been caught out of bed with _James_. If this got out no one would ever take her seriously, especially seeing as they weren't dating. She could just imagine what people would call her behind her back.

Lily was starting panic when she remembered something from her drama lessons at the Muggle School she had gone to.

Confidence is key, just roll with it and act like you're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing.

"Ooh what are two students doing out of bed?" Filch asked Mrs Norris with a wicked smile. Lily hoped she could pull this off. Before James could open his mouth and say something stupid, she acted.

"What wouldn't we be doing out of bed?" She asked as confidently as possible, shoving her trembling hands in her pocket. "We're on our prefect patrol," She said more to James then she did to Filch. James eyes widened but his they also took on a menacing shine, he was enjoying this.

"What?" Filch asked he had been so looking forward to punishing them.

"We on patrol, as part of our prefect duty." James said this slowly, as if explaining it to a small child. "Need proof? I've got my badge right here," He pulled out a shiny red badge, Lily eyes narrowed, now how had he got that? He certainly wasn't a prefect. "And hers is right on her chest." He pointed to the badge glistening on her jumper; she smiled an arrogant smile, one she had learned from James himself.

Filch looked disappointed, like a child tricked out of a large lolly-pop.

"Go on then, go back to your patrol." He grumbled, glaring at them as they walked past him.

As soon as they were far away, Lily smiled, she would never admit this but she had kind of enjoyed pulling the wool over Filch's eyes, especially with all the shit he put every student through, she felt as though she had taken one for the team, and claimed a small, school victory.

"Where did that come from?" James asked again that strange reverence filled his voice, much the same as when he had talked to her about her flying. "Since when could _you_ lie like that, Sirius would have been proud of a performance like that!" He stated, incredulously. Lily smiled slightly to herself.

"Well were did you get that badge?" She asked curiously.

"Transfigured a paperclip I had in my pocket." He said, still looking at Lily shocked, James had always been very good at Transfiguration.

James was still looking at her with astonishment when the finally reached Gryffindor tower and he could not wait to tell his friends of the very different side of Lily he had discovered tonight. The girl who loved flying, but practised in secret to hide her skill. The girl who could lie through her teeth to protect her friends if it came to it. The girl, he realised, who he had fallen even more in love with her in the past few hours.

88888888

Lily left no details out about her night, they of course already knew about her flying, but they of course reacted the way she thought they would. Marlene was obsessed with James and the way he had looked after her after she had fallen. Alice was more worried about why she had fallen, she agreed with James, it looked like someone had tried to kill, or seriously hurt her.

"You don't think it was one of those Slytherins who are really against muggle-born's?" Alice asked in a scared voice.

"No," Said Marlene confidently, "That's a really serious offence, they could get in serious trouble for it, and anyway, none of them have the balls." She said with a scornful laugh.

"Yes but remember what they tried to do to Mary Macdonald." Alice said in a quiet, scared voice. Both Marlene and Lily were of Muggle parentage and Alice was worried for them, she could not bear it if anything happened to them.

Marlene stayed quiet at this, what they'd done had been atrocious and full of dark magic, her argument crumbled around her and she too started to fear for her friend.

Marlene quickly changed the subject.

"Alice is trying to convince me that Sirius isn't a man-whore." She told Lily, with an air of strong disapproval.

"I'm not saying he's not a man-whore, I'm just saying he might have just got carried away, you know, gone onto auto-pilot, I mean its what he does with most girls!" Alice said indignantly. Lily sensed she was walking in on an argument from earlier.

"So now I'm just another girl, am I?" Marlene asked, her temper flaring.

"No, I think he's in love with you, but from your attitude, it sounds like you don't want him too be!" She disgruntled.

"Maybe I don't want him too be, it would make trying-to-not-be-in-love-with-him a whole lot easier!" Marlene was practically fuming now.

Lily backed out of the room and walked down the stairs to the common room, she felt Alice had brought this on herself, so she could deal with it by herself. Lily knew she'd be picking up the pieces later on.

Lily sank into an armchair, and started summoning random objects from around the room. She noticed that James was in a corner talking to Sirius very solemnly, they looked very worried about something. Lily wanted to know what it was so she summoned James's glasses. The soared over the room straight in her hand, and she went back to reading her book. Sirius grabbed James arm and lead him over to where Lily was holding them.

"Why?" He asked her in a defeated and exhausted voice. She looked up from her book surprised by the lack of James-bounce there was in his voice.

"I wanted to know what's wrong." She told him, frowning slightly.

"And you couldn't just ask me because…?"

"That would require getting up and out of this very comfy armchair." She told him simply. He rolled his eyes.

"You know the big Quidditch match tomorrow?" Lily nodded; the team had been training for weeks. "Well Jane Howard, our seeker, had some potion splashed into her eyes today in a lesson by accident, but she's going to be blind for 24 hours and we don't have a replacement, we can't win without a seeker, so we've already lost the match." James seemed crushed.

Lily was thinking, trying to find a solution.

"Can't you postpone the match for a week?" She asked

"We tried that," Said Sirius "It would mess up the entire schedule for this year."

"And you have no one who could stand in?" She asked she wanted Gryffindor to beat the Ravenclaws just as much as they did; she liked Quidditch even if she did not like playing it.

"There's no one light enough that has the skill, except perhaps you." He muttered, it was supposed to be a joke, but then his eyes lit up.

Lily knew where this was going.

"No! Absolutely not, nope don't look at me like that, I can't and I won't" Sirius looked very confused.

"Wait, since when could Evans fly?" He asked dazedly.

"Oh you haven't seen her!" Said James elatedly. Lily was starting to panic; she couldn't play in a match could she? Then again she might be Gryffindor's only hope. James could see the panic in her eyes.

"Its okay Lily, you don't have to." He deflated again. Lily felt terrible but she couldn't play in a match, she just couldn't.

But as Lily fell asleep she couldn't bare the thought of James upset over something she could fix. With that thought in mind she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

88888888

Lily woke the next morning with a sense of dread in her stomach, and she stumbled down to breakfast with Alice and Marlene. The entire house was in a very sombre mood, everyone aware that they were about to be thrashed. Lily sensed from the downcast faces of the team that they had not found a replacement. The Ravenclaw team were very cheerful this morning; they could pretty much get the drinks ready for the after party.

Not if Lily had anything to do with it. At least they'd go down trying instead of waiting too be demolished. She breathed in deeply and walked over to where the team was sitting.

"James?" She asked timidly, he turned round and forced a smile. "I'll do it." She said resolutely, the affect was instantaneous, his face and Sirius's (Lily assumed James had told him all about her last night) lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Really?!" he asked face suddenly excited.

"Yes, but I can't promise you I'll be any good, I've never played before." She said her nervousness and worry creeping to the surface of her voice.

"Lily, you are an incredible flyer, and even if you don't see the snitch first you can always chase after the other seeker until he sees it and take it right off him." His voice was filled with passion.

"I've never even practised though," James and Sirius stood up, each grabbing an arm and racing her out of the hallway down to the pitch.

"We have an hour till the match," James said breathlessly, they were still running. "With your previous skill and our help we'll have you Quidditch ready in no time." They had reached the pitch and James accioed all they're brooms. They were all expensive makes, Lily had asked for one for her birthday a couple of years ago.

"Bu…" Lily began but was silenced by Sirius shoving a piece of toast in her mouth, she glared at him but at quickly realising just how hungry she was. He winked back.

They warmed up and they released the snitch, she discovered she had a good eye for finding it quickly and half an hour later they were all out of breath and Lily was even looking forwards to the match, it was just flying, and she loved flying. The boys gave her a couple of techniques that The Ravenclaw seeker, Austin MacDougal used and reminded her too watch out for the bludgers, then as they saw students coming down the pitch they raced into the changing rooms.

She had not realised that the team had been watching her from the changing rooms. They looked at her in awe and astonishment and she ducked her head and scuttled past them, eager to change and get back on the pitch. James transfigured one of the spare Quidditch jerseys to have her name on the back and promised she could keep it after the match, she beamed at him and he grinned back.

Far more quickly than she had anticipated, however, they were back out onto her pitch and her nerves suddenly rocketed at the sight of the entire school turn-out, even the Slytherins were there, however that was probably only because they had been promised a Gryffindor loss.

"And the captains lead the teams out onto the pitch, the Gryffindors have enlisted the help of the fabulous Lily Evans who is standing in as seeker for Jane Howard who unfortunately cannot play to day," Marlene commentated all the Gryffindor matches, Lily grinned to herself.

"The captains shake hands, how many fingers do you think they just broke between them?" Marlene giggled to the crowds as the two captains stared each other down.

"And there off and the quaffle is straight into the possession of Potter, straight to Black, back and forth, tearing down that pitch, and they're so close to the goal post…" Lily tuned out Marlene as she soared through the air searching for the invisible golden ball, it had disappeared from sight although she thought she had caught a glimpse by the Ravenclaw goal posts, and she was scanning it reverently, she heard something whistling towards her and she rolled the broom straight over to avoid the bludger.

"A truly beautiful roll, from Evans there, it's going to take more than that Boyd," She said gleefully to one of the Ravenclaw beaters.

Lily saw a flash near the bottom of the pitch, and she dived almost vertically to the ground pulling up hand outstretched for the ball when, WHAM, a bludger smashed into her arm, she screamed as pain shot up her arm like burning needles. She heard James call to the captain, Robins, for time-out as he raced towards her, they both landed on the ground and he ran towards her inspecting her arm as angry tears rolled down her face, Madame Pomfrey ran onto the pitch as and somewhere above them she could hear Madame Hooch screaming at the Ravenclaws for all she was worth about the morals of the school.

Marlene was screeching like a banshee down the microphone and cursing and swearing at everyone thing and everyone while Proffessor Mcgonagall attempts to wrestle the microphone out of her hands to no avail.

Madame Hooch ordered five penalties to Gryffindor only one of which was saved, the score was 50-70 in favour of the Gryffindors now, but without Lily it didn't mean much. She was sat on the pitch, her broom by her side as Madame Pomfrey wrapped her arm up in bandage after bandage and gave her a sling and a potion to deal with the pain.

Everyone stood up; the Gryffindors look down-trodden again knowing they'd lost the match. Madame Pomfrey tried to Shepard Lily towards the castle but Lily stood straight where she was.

"Miss Evans, come on we need to get you too the hospital wing." She said impatiently.

"What? No, I'm finishing the game!" Lily said indignantly, Madame Pomfrey looked like she was about to faint.

"Lily, no you can't you'll destroy your arm." James said, concern painted across his gorgeous face. Lily aimed to walk past him to her broom. But James stood in the way. "I won't let you." Lily eyes narrowed.

"You won't let me?" She asked quietly, her eyes glittering dangerously. James looked worried, glancing to Sirius who had slunk over by her side. When they still didn't move, Lily pulled out her wand. The entire school was watching this ordeal although they could not hear what was going on. The boys parted and she walked past them, jumped onto her broom and joined the other players in the air.

"I don't believe this," Said Marlene, "Lily Evans is back on her broom and in the sky despite the broken arm!" The Gryffindors cheered and she grinned to herself. "Madame Pomfrey is unfortunately unable for comment on Lily's medical status in the light of this event, as she has in fact fainted."

As soon as James and Sirius were out of their daze they too were in the sky and the game continued. Lily was taking no shit this time; even if one of her legs were cursed off she was going to get the snitch. Ten minutes on into the second half, she spotted it, it was hovering next to the stand were all the teachers and Marlene were sitting. It was now or never.

She rocketed towards them, Marlene was screaming down the microphone in earnest and all the teachers were ducking down into their seat, only Dumbledore remained perfectly still. The snitch flitted away over the heads of the students in the stands and she tore after it, conscience only of that one tiny ball. She could hear MacDougal behind her, but she was did not care she was so close, her hand closed around the ball just as there was a flash of light and everything went black.

88888888

Lily was aware only of a very bright light, her eyes opened uncertainly and they burned with the brightness of the room. She could feel sheets around her and she smelled mud and dirt, she was also very aware of a dull throbbing pain in her arm.

"Lily?! Lily! Oh you're awake! Quick someone go tell Madame Pomfrey!" She heard Alice say and as soon as her eyes adjusted she saw her too. She was pale and it looked like she had been crying, also present round her bedside she saw the whole Gryffindor team, James and Marlene. It looked like Sirius had run to go get Madame Pomfrey.

"What happened?" She said in a croaky voice.

"I think I am best suited to answer that question." Lily's eyes widened as she saw Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey stride towards her; he gave her a kind smile.

"Unfortunately, we're a bit worried about your safety," James scoffed and Dumbledore looked at him over his half moon spectacles before continuing. "We fear you may have made a bit of an enemy, the bludger that hit your arm was not hit by any of the Ravenclaw team, and just as you caught the snitch, and what an excellent catch it was," He congratulated her, "You were hexed by someone we think, in the hope you would fall off your broom once you reached the end of the stand. It was the Slytherins you were flying over at the time, but it could quite have easily have been anyone in the stands." He said.

"The same thing happened the other nights, I was practising on the pitch and I was hexed again, James happened too be watching and stopped my falling." Everyone turned to James as she said this.

"Yeah but at the time I didn't think anyone had hexed her, I thought she'd fainted so I didn't check and to see if anyone else was around."

Alice and Marlene were both very pale and distressed at this point.

"Please just be cautious Miss Evans, don't go anywhere without anyone else, and I'm sure you'll be fine." Dumbledore reassured. As soon as Dumbledore left Alice and Marlene started fussing over her, and the team started telling her about how amazing the victory had been, apparently Gryffindor tower was having a party as soon as she got back and to hurry up mending so they could start, before trooping away. Jane Howard came over, Lily and Jane got on very well and she congratulated Lily on her win and thanked her for stepping in for her. Then she too left and it was just Alice, Marlene, Sirius and James. James had taken up permanent residence of the chair next to her bed and would not budge, determined to help her get better and to cheer her up.

By dinnertime she was feeling much better; the bones in her arm had re-grown and she wanted to get down the Great Hall for dinner. It was just her and James now, Alice, Marlene and Sirius had all drifted off to the Library to work, well Alice and Marlene would be working and Sirius would be pestering them. None stop.

Once Madame Pomfrey, grudgingly, allowed her to leave they walked down to the Entrance hall, discussing the match all the way.

Lily accepted Quidditch was fun and although she would not try out for the team, as she would not upstage her friend like that, she agreed it was a fun sport and she could still appreciate the sensation of flying with the rush of the adrenaline the sport provided.

When she said this James grinned so wide she thought his face might split, and kissed her. He went pale and realised what he'd done. Lily was shocked and could not utter a word. Neither of them could blame _that_ on alcohol. James backed away and dazedly stumbled into the Great Hall leaving Lily confused outside…

 **A/N Ooooooooh. Well what do you think of that. That's not a rhetorical question by the way, you can tell me, just leave a review. And WOW that was long, I do hope I didn't rant. I wrote all of this with a kitten purring on my chest. Have you ever written a story with a kitten on your chest? I would highly recommend it, though they do get bored and try to eat your laptop which is not so great I guess.**

 **The Bookworm xx**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N I'm giving up on these authors' notes, I swear. Just remember all rights remain with the fabulous J.K. Rowling and I do not own and of these characters, just in case you were wondering.**

Chapter 7

Remus stared at his friend; James was staring at his plate with a perplexed frown. He had stumbled into the hall, tripping over his feet all the way before slumping onto the bench opposite Remus.

Remus was trying to think what had happened that could have affected his mood so drastically, Remus had gone to the hospital wing to say hello to Lily, but she had been sleeping soundly, James had been in the best of moods.

He looked over to the red-head and saw she was wearing the same baffled face, casting side-ways glances at James every other minute. Remus rolled his eyes, he should have known by now that it was something to do with her.

What on earth had James done this time?

After dinner James's mood had improved slightly due to Sirius having charmed McGonagall hat to flash different neon colours until she noticed and put him in detention for a week.

At about eleven, when most of the common room had cleared after the party, he disappeared up to the boy's dormitory and returned a few minutes later with a bottle of firewhiskey and a grin.

"Anybody fancy a drink?" James asked with a menacing smile.

"Ooooooh, I'm game." Sirius agreed. Peter nodded and Remus sighed. But then thought about how much more truthful and carefree James was when he was drunk.

"Fine, but we should at least invite Alice, Marlene, Frank and Lily. It's only polite." Remus said nonchalantly, noticing James tense at the mention Lily. Peter was dispatched to go and invite the others and they all turned up.

Marlene, however, hated drinking without purpose and decided they needed a game to play to make it fun.

"Right we're playing truth or dare, its way more fun." She said taking control and ignoring Alice, who rolled her eyes.

"Hmm, right Peter, truth or dare?" She asked.

"Truth." Peter responded.

"First girl you kissed." Marlene asked. There was a wicked glint in her eye.

"Mary MacDonald." He replied just as confidently, with no shame. Marlene smiled.

"Take a shot." Marlene ordered. Peter did so, and they moved on to the next person.

"Padfoot," Peter picked.

"Dare." Sirius answered eagerly.

"Give a hug to the next person who walks in and refuse to let go." Peter said.

Now the dare would have seemed tame, however the next person to walk in was Alex Finnigan, a very burly, aggressive seventh year. Sirius paled slightly however stayed true to the dare. He came back five minutes later with a developing black eye. It seems it had taken fists to get Sirius to let go.

He did not need to be told to take a shot, he did so readily.

"Frank," Sirius said nasty smile.

"Truth"

"If you could kiss anyone in this room, who would it be?" Sirius asked thoughtfully.

"Alice." Frank said sheepishly. Alice went scarlet and stared at her hands very forcefully.

"Lily." Frank said, with a sorry smile. Lily knew it was coming anyway so she just accepted her fate, hoping Frank wouldn't be too mean.

"Dare." Frank raised his eyebrows but she did not change her answer.

"Have someone go down to the kitchen and pick a food for you that you're not allowed to eat with your hands." As dare's went, she guessed this was better than having to kiss anyone or remove clothing as she was sure would come.

"Alice," She decided would be the nicest.

"I don't know where it is." Alice apologised.

"Remus?" She asked hopefully.

"Nope, sorry." He replied simply. Lily groaned.

"Urgh, does anyone here actually know how to get down there?" Both Sirius and James raised their hands.

"Oh dear Merlin," She muttered, noticing their equally evil grins. "I suppose James is the lesser of the two evils." She muttered darkly. He grinned.

"I'll be back in ten minutes, do drink amongst yourselves." He said politely, before laughing and walking through the portrait hole.

"Won't he get caught?" Marlene asked after a minute, staring at where James had disappeared.

"Don't worry, old Prongs has his ways." Sirius said with a grin.

When James did return, Lily's groaned, he had decided on a bowl of porridge. She glared at him.

"I actually hate you, I should've picked Sirius." She sighed.

"No you shouldn't have, I was gonna pick noodles or spinach."

"You can barely eat them with your fingers." Lily said in outrage.

" _Exactly_ " Sirius grinned. 10 degrading minutes later, Lily had completed her dare, and cleaned herself up and gladly taken her shot.

"Remus" She challenged.

"Truth" He said with a laugh. Lily thought for a minute.

"Who would you take an avada for?" She asked genuinely.

"Anyone of you" He said without pause. Everyone was silent for a minute, appreciating that Remus, or anyone may have to live up to that encoded promise, until Sirius groaned.

"Everything got way too serious then, now everyone has to take a shot; Mooney has to take three, one for his truth, one for being way to deep, and one because everyone else is." Remus whined for a moment, before grumpily taking his shots.

Remus thought very quickly, James and Lily still didn't believe the other liked them although he knew each had kissed the other, James had told them about how he had 'ruined everything' this would be a perfect moment too help them along a b it. He thought sinisterly.

"James" He decided, he knew he would pick a dare, and Lily had just done a dare, it was only fair.

"Dare" He said as Remus had assumed he would.

"Put your hands in Lily's pockets for 5 minutes." He said as innocently as possible. They both glared at him as discreetly as they could. Lily wished she had stayed wearing her school uniform, her skirt didn't have pockets, but her jeans did.

Very tight pockets.

James came up behind her and slipped his hands into her jeans pockets. She was very aware of how nice he felt up behind her and how fast her heart was beating. Everyone was grinning at them, all very aware of how much they liked each other.

"Well we might as well continue, while there doing there dare." Marlene said with a wide grin.

"Alright Marlene, it's my turn to decide, truth or dare?" James challenged.

"Truth" James wanted to make Marlene feel just as uncomfortable as he did.

"Who here do you think would be a bad date?" Marlene blanched.

"Urrr," Marlene was thinking very quickly. "I don't want to offend anyone, but probably Remus," She said very apologetically "Just because you're quite quiet and I'm, well, really not." She amended as quickly as possible, her face was bright red.

Agree, we would have a terrible date." He said with a laugh, thinking about how awful that would be. It's not that they didn't like Marlene it was that they were very, very different.

"Phew, James you can take your hands out of Lily's pockets now, well, you could've done about three minutes." Marlene said laughing as James quickly withdrew his hands.

He had been concentrating so much on trying to stop his heart beating so fast, which he was sure Lily could hear. They both quickly gulped down shots, so they could blame their red cheeks on the alcohol.

"Alice" Marlene challenged.

"Dare?" Alice asked uncertainly. She groaned when she saw Marlene's eyes glitter.

"Shave on of Frank's legs." Marlene said trying and failing not laugh at their shocked faces.

"What here?" Frank asked, eyes wide.

You could always do it in the boy's dormitory bathroom," Sirius said laughing as Alice's eyes widened.

"Might as well get it over and done with," Frank said with a sigh as he stood up, pulling up Alice and leading her away up the stairs to the boy's dormitory. They could see Alice's blush from their corner in the common room.

"Ten sickles says that they come back all flustered from making out in the bathroom." Sirius bet the entire circle.

"You're on," James wagered. "Alice is much too well brought up to make out in a bathroom.

"I don't know." Lily added, "Alice is really into Frank, if Frank starts it, Alice won't say no, bathroom or not." Lily murmured thoughtfully.

They did indeed come back five minutes later with messier hair, swollen lips and massive grins. James discreetly passed Sirius five sickles whilst the rest of the group observed Franks one very smooth, hairless leg.

Alice remembered her promise to Sirius and decided to help him out, after all she wanted to help her friend and she was intrigued by this information Sirius had offered her.

"Sirius, truth or dare?" She asked.

"Dare"

 _Well_ Alice though, _he asked for it,_ _if he had picked truth it would have been easier_. _Well drastic times call for drastic measures_.

"Passionately kiss Marlene." Marlene shot her a shocked look, before looking at Sirius who was sitting next to her.

He leaned in and whispered something in her ear that made her eyes widen, she turned to him and he kissed her. Everyone in the circle who knew that they loved each other grinned, everyone who didn't know were quickly informed, before everyone looked in a different direction as the display was getting a bit heated.

Eventually Remus and the rest of the group felt it had got a bit too awkward so, Remus took out his wand and charmed a generous body of water to be dumped over their heads. They broke apart spluttering.

"Mooney! I was in the middle of something!" He growled at the werewolf. Remus raised his eyes.

"Yes we were all _very_ aware of that." Remus told him pointedly. Sirius was too happy to care, but Marlene grinned a bit more sheepishly.

A few rounds later however they were all adequately drunk and it was two in the morning they decided to call it a day. They all trooped of to bed with large beams on their faces, before snuggling down into their beds and falling soundless asleep, still with large smiles on their faces.

 **A/N *EEEEEEE* Are Marlene and Sirius finally going to get together? Please do tell me your thoughts as they honestly do help. Well have a nice week.**

 **The Bookworm xx**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N you know how I said I was going to quit Authors Notes. Well I don't think I can so you kind of stuck with them, sucks to be you guys. Omg I can't even believe I'm at chapter 8! Seems like so long ago I was just reading Fan fiction and now I actually write it, (Cheesy and cliché, I know, but true) don't worry this isn't the last chapter I'm going to drag this out for a little longer…**

Chapter 8

Lily groaned as she sat up in bed slowly, the lights around her were too bright and she moaned, squinting. The headache that pulsed in her temple was dreadful, as though many tiny bottles of firewhiskey were chipping away at the inside of her skull with tiny bottle openers.

She stumbled out of her four poster bed and stumbled into the bath room, searching through the cabinets and found three hangover potions, she quickly swallowed one, relieved as the wave of nausea dissipated and limped out to place the other two vials on her friend's bed-side cabinets, both of which were still soundly asleep.

She looked at the clock and saw it was 1:00pm. She suppressed a squeal. She had missed almost a whole day of potential studying and work, not to mention breakfast and lunch. Now that she was no longer feeling nauseous she realised she was very hungry.

She rooted around in her trunk before pulling out several chocolate frogs and a couple of cauldron cakes, purchases from last weeks Hogsmeade stock up. He inhaled the food before throwing on some jeans and a large Christmassy jumper (The holiday, after all, was in four days) and tripping down the stairs to the common room.

She toppled into the large space, and sat down at one of the tables retrieving her book from where it she had left it last night. She looked up and jumped in shock as two very deliciously hazel brown eyes looked back at her.

"James! Merlin you scared me." She said as he laughed cheerily, he noticed her wince at the loud noise and grinned.

"How are you? Not too hung-over I hope." He said wickedly.

"No I'm better now that I've had some potion, but I. Am. Starving" She articulated morosely. James cocked his head slightly and narrowed his eyes as though summing her up. She looked at him, puzzled.

He stood up.

"Follow me." He said and he strode away across the crowded room to the portrait hole, without checking to see if she was following. She was very curious as too what it was he wanted to show her, and she guessed, despite her minor panic earlier, she didn't really have much to do that day, so, as casually as she could, she too struggled through the teeming tower-room and made her way out of the portrait hole.

As she stepped out she saw James look up and a look of relief and satisfaction came across his face. He gestured his arm to her.

"Shall we?" He asked, as though he were a 17th century gentlemen. She laughed at his antics but brushed his arm away.

"James where the hell are we going?" She asked walking forwards, looking over her shoulder at him and laughing.

"Well I don't know where your going, but I'm going this way." He said, indicating his right before again walking off. Lily sighed dejectedly before chasing after him. She hoped wherever it was they were going it was worth it.

88888888

Alice looked around the crowded common room, but sighed as she realised Lily wasn't in there either. She had checked everywhere, the dormitories, and the bathroom. Next she guessed was the Library.

She too had woken up with an intense headache and had gladly drunken the hangover cure that she assumed Lily had left for her as Marlene was still sound asleep. However, once she was washed and dressed she could not find the red-head anywhere.

Marlene had also disappeared from her bed once she had returned from her shower, so she guessed she had to look for her too.

She picked up Lily's book that had been left on a table, to take it back to the dorms, however she was abruptly stopped by a large mass of Sirius.

He was grinning so widely she thought his chin might not be able to hold it up and would sag to the floor.

"What do you want?" She asked tiredly. He did not stop smiling.

"Sirius, if you do not either tell me what it is you want, or move out of the way, I will hex you out of the way." She snapped irately. Sirius, dare it be possible, smiled wider but he did speak.

"I've come to give you your payment." Sirius said gleefully.

"What?" Alice asked, temporarily thrown.

"I promised to give you some information once you helped me get a date with Marlene." He said joyfully.

Any anger or irritation Alice may have felt towards Sirius was thrown out a window, down a 100 foot drop, where it was blasted to smithereens and set alight, by her sheer happiness at his words. She squealed and hugged him so heard she swore she cracked a rib.

"You asked her! And she said yes! Eeeeeee!" She squealed elatedly. Sirius grinned at her.

"And if it weren't for you and that dare, I doubt she would have said yes." Alice grinned back at him, purely happy for Marlene.

"I really didn't help that much, and getting her to kiss you probably wasn't the only thing." She said slightly confused.

"Ahh but it allowed me to tell her something." He said cockily.

"Was that what you whispered to her?" She asked intently. "What did you say?" She questioned, however Sirius just tapped his nose.

"Anyway," Sirius said changing the topic speedily. "That little snippet of information." He leaned in a whispered something in her ear that made her heart stop and her eyes widen at the same time.

" _Frank Longbottom has been in love with for about three years now."_

Sirius walked away, leaving her standing there like a lamppost, completely unaware of everything around her as the truth, swam around her head again and again, repeating itself over and over. She must have stood there for ten minutes before coming to her joyous senses as a big grin plastered itself across her face.

88888888

Lily and James had been walking around the castle in, what seemed to Lily, a random fashion, a way to pass the time, Lily was really just passing away the hours to dinner as she was still desperately hungry and her stomach rumbled every few minutes, so loudly she was sure James could hear.

However soon they walked into a corridor with lots of portraits of food and at the end of the corridor was a picture of a fruit bowl. James reached out and tickled the pear, Lily thought he might be going mad until the pear started to giggle and turned into a door handle. James grasped the handle pulled open the door and gestured for her to go in.

Lily was still waiting for the day Hogwarts stopped surprising her. Six years in and she was starting to believe that day would never come.

Lily walked into the room on the other side and gasped in astonishment, she heard James chuckle behind her.

The room in front of her was almost an exact copy of the great hall with the four long house tables and large fireplaces; however all around the sides of this room were cookers, brass pots and pans, sinks and dressers.

So this was the kitchen.

"Mr Potter, Sir, it is so goods to be seeing yous again." Said a small house elf, dashing up to James.

"Hey Bowie, could you whip up some lunch for us?" The Gryffindor boy asked kindly, motioning to him and Lily. The house-elf squealed gleefully and rounded up some other elves to help him make the food.

James sat down on the Gryffindor bench and Lily sat opposite him.

"Thank you." She said shyly. "When I told you I was hungry, I didn't mean for you to go out of your way to get me some food."

"Eh," He shrugged un-fazed, "Your stomach was rumbling so loudly, I figured it was a public service, all those poor portraits, they were probably deafened." He teased and she smacked his arm, laughing.

Three house-elf's dashed up carrying trays of food: sandwiches, quiches, pasta dishes all on one tray, drinks on another and the last tray was bedecked in mountains of sugary goods: éclairs, scones, biscuits, slices of cake, tarts, practically everything she could think of.

They thanked the elves and Lily dug in before suddenly stopping abruptly and looking scandalised.

"You!" She pointed at him with a breadstick. James looked taken aback. "You always said you nicked food from the kitchen, no you don't! It's not hard at all, the elves bring it too you on silver platters!" She said, trying to keep the laughter from her voice. James visibly relaxed and grinned sheepishly.

"Yes, well we have to keep the reputation up." He said with a grin. "Not to mention the secrets of the kitchen, not many people know where it is and most people have the image of an angry old hag in an apron in there minds, and we don't want to deprive them of that. This means you have been sworn to secrecy too, you can bring others down here but you can't go around telling everyone about the house-elves, it ruins the mystery…"

"…and your reputation." She finished.

"Well there is that, anyway you have to promise." Lily rolled her eyes but agreed.

Lily was struck by how easy all this was, how calming it was just too spend time with him, and how much she wanted to do this everyday. She did not know that the boy across from her was having the same thoughts.

88888888

Two days later James, Peter and Remus were snickering to themselves as silently as they could manage but it was very hard to ignore such a momentous occasion, that occasion being: Sirius Black was nervous for a date.

They figured history had been made; Sirius was always brimming with confidence; however they had finally found the girl that made Sirius apprehensive. They figured they should make her a medal.

Sirius did his best to mask his unease, figuring that if he didn't talk he would less convey the speed at which the butterflies were whirling round his stomach, however his friends new him better.

Before a date Sirius was full of certainty, often even acting as though it was a normal day before capturing some girls hand and disappearing off for an hour, just saying goodbye and not explaining his absence until he got back. No, the silence was a sign of highly-strung Sirius.

The Marauders, bar Sirius were beside themselves. They knew it had nothing to do with the girl in question, it was the fear of screwing it up that was making him uneasy. Little did they know, similar giggles were going on in the opposite dorm with Marlene.

But The Marauders, Lily, Alice and Frank (Who both looked very pleased about something) could all see just how much Sirius and Marlene liked each other, and when they came downstairs all their nerves seemed to fly away to a desert island for a holiday as they broke out into identical grins.

Lily looked over at her friend, and around at all the others, she realised how lucky she was too be spending Christmas eve with them all. Once Marlene and Sirius had left, trekking out into the snow to Hogsmeade, they all sat around the fire in the common room, playing chess, exploding snap and laughing.

Lily managed to get Alice alone for a minute.

"Ok, what are you grinning about?!" She asked searchingly.

"Frank kissed me and asked me out!" Alice squealed as quietly as possible. Lily squealed too, beaming.

"Eeeeeee, what happened?!" Lily asked quickly.

"Well, Sirius came over and thanked me for helping him get him and Marlene together, and gave me a piece of information as a sort of payment. He told me that Frank was in love with me, and at first I was shocked, and then things started clicking and I realised how stupid and blind I'd been. So I found him and told him what Sirius had said and told him I felt the same way and he stood up and kissed me, then asked me out! We're going to go out sometime next week." She finished joyfully.

Lily then told Alice all about her day and later when marlene returned they talked about her date. The three girls laughed and gossiped about their days until they drifted off into peaceful slumbers

88888888

A/N Well, Sirius and Marlene are together, Alice and Frank are together, now who am I missing…? On a more Sirius note (HAHAHAHAH, I AM SOOOOOO PUNNY!) How'd you like that, please do tell me, I'm all ears!

The Bookworm xx


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Not gonna lie don't really have a solid plan for this chapter, but I just saw the John Lewis advert and I figured what the hell, so here it is, a month early, but…**

Chapter 9

When Lily awoke, she grinned up at the wood panels above her four poster bed marvelling at how easy it was to ignore everything confusing or upsetting in her life and simply absorb the wonderful joy that always enveloped her on this day, on Christmas.

She loved the sensation of the weight by her feet where she knew a small bundle of presents would lie.

She loved the sound of the fire, already crackling in the great, dismissing the dark and the cold for this happy day.

Most of all though she loved the smells; there was this beautiful lingering scent of spice, citrus fruit and brandy, the very smells she had always walked into at home when returning from a snowball fight with Petunia, their hands frozen and their cheeks pink.

She tried to stop thinking about Petunia quickly, she had chosen to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas as her mother was still upset at her for 'being to busy' to go to Petunias wedding and she knew she could never stick to that story for a whole month, she didn't want Petunia to hate her anymore than she already did by getting her into trouble about banning Lily from her wedding

Lily pushed all those thoughts from her mind and sat up, opening the hangings of her four-poster to greet her friends and wish them happy Christmas before they all started tearing feverishly into their presents.

Lily received: A book on bizarre hexes from Marlene, she said they were for James when he acted out but as Lily spied through the book she could see lots perfect for lots of different people. She and Marlene both received the same black dress and when they asked thanked Alice she grinned somewhat evilly.

"That's not even the best part," Alice giggled under her breath. Lily and Marlene rolled there eyes, neither could be bothered to do the whole 'what's the best part?' act. However Alice needed no prompting. "They're transformation dresses," Lily gasped, but Alice was on a roll and she did not interrupt. "As soon as you touch them, they respond to thought, if you need a long black gown, or a swimming costume, even a bra, well hey presto!"

"Omg that's amazing!" screeched the two girls. They both immediately started playing with the dresses, changing them luminous colours, shrinking them down to little baby clothes, turning them into large winter coats.

"Just remember, you can only have one piece of clothing, you couldn't transform it into a bikini for example, or a shirt _and_ a pair of jeans, just the one thing." Alice beamed, clearly pleased with how excited her two friends were about her gift. "And don't worry I obviously got one for me too." She giggled

They all continued to play around with their presents; Lily also got some money from her parents to buy some new Quidditch supplies, and a card from Petunia reminding her not to attend her wedding, Lily heart sank when she saw this, and quickly walked over to the fire and threw the message in, watching it turn black and fall into ash, before turning on her heel and striding back to her bed, determined to not let it get her down.

The most exciting present however was probably the most boring one (As Marlene had put it, still marvelling at her transfiguration dress); it was simply a small box with an assortment of Honeydukes sweets inside, containing some of her favourites: Pepper Imps, Fizzing Wizzbees, Levitating Sherbet Balls, Ice Mice and Exploding Bon-bon's. It was who it was from that excited Lily.

James.

She suddenly felt very guilty, she hadn't gotten him anything and she hoped she had a chance to make it up to him at some point through-out the day.

After they had ravaged their gifts they dressed, and headed down to the common-room and caught The Marauders in a heated chess match, Sirius vs. Remus. Judging from the cheerleading James and Peter were doing, it appeared they had some kind of bet going on. As they approached they watched Remus win the game, victorious and with only three pieces left in the game. James cheered and took the money extended to him by a reproachful Peter who was shaking his head at a dumb-founded Sirius.

"You were cheating! There is no other way you pulled that off, you only had three pieces left, I had almost all mine, there is no way you won." Sirius exclaimed.

"Sirius you were so caught up in destroying my pieces you completely forgot that you were supposed to be trying to get my king, you're the idiot here not me." Remus said hands up and eyes rolling.

Lily felt that a change of subject may stop the argument and potential fight coming on, whether jokey or not she wanted no conflict today, it was Christmas after all. She cleared her throat and four heads swivelled in their direction.

"You guys wanna come get a quick breakfast with us?" Lily asked the four boys, they all agreed readily, Sirius came over and held Marlene's hand, turning to her.

"Good morning sugar plumb." He said jovially, and kissed her on the cheek. Marlene stared at him in horror.

"Sugar plumb?!" She asked despairingly, although she had blushed and grinned at the floor when he had grabbed her hand. The Marauders apart from Sirius collectively groaned.

"What?" Alice asked them confused.

"Sirius, has this weird thing about nicknames and pet names, as soon as you have one, it either sticks or becomes more and more ridiculous." James moaned, Sirius grinned at him. "All the way through third year I was sexy socks, jamsikins, or darling." He muttered darkly and the group laughed as they started to make their way down towards the great hall, all the while listening to Sirius and Marlene bicker about 'Sugar plumb'.

They enjoyed a small but ruckus breakfast that involved a small food fight at one point and ended when Sirius lost control of a charmed piece of bacon that proceeded to fly over and hit Professor McGonagall or 'Minnie as Sirius called her, square in the face. They laughed deliriously as McGonagall chased them all out the great hall.

They walked out onto the open grounds and all fell around in the snow laughing.

"That was too much fun." Lily giggled clutched at her aching sides and lying back in the snow, to cool her off. Everyone laughed only in response, all trying to mentally save the image of the bacon sliding off McGonagall's furious face.

"Hey does anyone want to…" They never heard the end of that sentence as Sirius was suddenly hit in the face with a snowball. Everyone looked round at James who was lying in the snow laughing his head off at Sirius's shocked face.

"Oh mate, it's on!" Said Sirius vengefully, gathering the snow and throwing it back at him, the boys were suddenly in an all out war, launching the frozen water at each other, the girls turned to each other, shrugged, and they too started gathering the snow.

Five minutes later the girls were losing, the boys had sided with one another and were pushing the girls back. However where the boys had brawn and numbers on their side, the girls had intelligence. They brandished their wands and Lily charmed them a small snow fort to stand behind, this gave them the advantage of taking a breath between spells, they had decided on charming many snowballs to be fired at once, rather than one large snow ball as Marlene had tried that and Peter hand been temporarily engulfed in snow and had to be dug out by his friends, while Lily, Alice and Marlene had hidden behind their fort and giggled mercilessly.

They decided to call it a truce after James swallowed a large amount of snow and rolled around on the floor, suffering severe brain freeze and Sirius had crept round the back of the girls' fort and shoved copious amounts of ice down the back of Marlene's robes, causing her to squawk like a parrot.

They all retired back into the castle sopping wet, red faced and numb fingered but laughing all the same. They dashed up to Gryffindor tower to change before settling down in the common room before lunch.

There were several games of exploding snap, wizards' chess, and game of James and Lily's invention were they charmed everyone else's clothes and bodies different colours and waited to see how long it took them to realise.

Lily won, she charmed peter to have red strip of hair, down the centre of his head and it took him twenty minutes, with everyone's amused comments, to realise anything the matter.

Peter was now grumpily occupying the floor. Sirius however had left to go up to the dormitory, and did not know Peter was seated on the floor, as a result he came dashing down the stair at full speed and tripped over Peter and landed awkwardly on Peters knee.

"OOOO" He groaned in a voice and octave higher than usual, eyes wide. The two remaining boys hissed in appreciation of Sirius's current pain, but the girls giggled behind their hands.

"Peter," He whispered hoarsely "Do not move your knee! Mooney, help!" He moaned, in trying to extricate himself he had only twisted himself around more, meaning he was now truly stuck.

Remus just rolled his eyes and went back to his game of chess that he and Lily had started, James instead got up to help, however when James attempted to pull Sirius he lost his balance and fell to, landing sprawled on top of Sirius.

The girls where in hysterics by now, Remus wincing as Sirius was once again dropped onto Peters knee.

"SEE THIS IS WHY I ASK MOONEY TO HELP, NOT YOU, YOU LOVESICK

TWAT!" Sirius shouted in a very high pitched voice, his face screwed up in pain. Peter was struggling to breathe at this point.

Sirius struggled around, waving his arms and legs in an attempt to wriggle out from underneath James, however only ended up kicking James in the face.

"PADFOOT," James screeched, holding his broken nose. He rolled off the top of the pile, only to land on Peter's arm who yelped in pain.

"PRONGS!" Peter whined. James stood up and pointed his wand at his nose, staring at it cross eyed. It was at that point Lily stepped in; she could see this all going terribly, terribly wrong. Images of James without her nose started racing through her mind…

"James, stop!" She shouted, he looked up at her. Pulling out her wand, she pointed it at James face, he looked quite terrified.

"Brackium Emendo." She said flicking her wand, James cried out as the bone, clicked back into place. She then turned to Sirius who was still twisted up with Peter and rolled her eyes. "Sirius, move your knee, to the left- WAIT PETER NOT YOU!" But too late, Sirius whimpered helplessly, however he moved his knee. Lily then used wingardium leviosar, too levitate him into the air, and then put him back down onto the floor, where he curled up into a ball, groaning.

Alice, Marlene and Remus were still sniggering. Peter and James were both pink in the face. Lily grinned and rolled her eyes at her friends; Marlene stood up and walked over to her boyfriend, crouching down next to him.

"Oh, you poor baby." She cooed sympathetically and slightly sarcastically.

"MARLENE, PLEASE NOT NOW." Sirius whispered in an unusually high voice. "NOT WHEN ALL MY DIGNITY HAS BEEN STRIPPED FROM ME." He moaned theatrically. He really knew how to milk it.

"I know something that will make you feel better," She smirked at him, his head shot up, eyes alight. "Lunch starts in two minutes." She told him, he leapt up, grabbed Marlene's hand and pulled her from the room in great haste, confirming Lily suspicions that he had been dramatising how much pain he actually was in. She could hear Marlene's laughter from through the open portrait hole, which was swinging wildly and they could hear the fat lady shouting insults at them down the hall.

"We better go before Padfoot eats everything in the great hall." James said with a laugh and with that they all started set out towards the great hall.

Lunch was a splendid affair, the tables were practically sagging with the weight of the food, the air was full of chatter and laughter and occasionally the loud bang of the wizards crackers, Lily was slightly miffed by the her headpiece, a large leprechaun hat. James thought it was hilarious and pointed out how well it suited her red hair and how much it made her look like a leprechaun, he of course had gotten a navel captains hat and he pulled it off magnificently.

However suddenly his gaze, with had been so bright and cheerful darkened considerably.

"What is it?" She asked sensing his unease.

"Serverus Snape is watching you." He said dispiritedly. Lily glanced over her shoulder and so he was, as soon as he saw her watching he looked away quickly. Lily didn't want _him_ to ruin her day so she put on a big smile.

"So what?" She asked cheerfully. "He doesn't mean anything to me anymore; he eliminated himself from my life by his own doing." She said before guiltily looking up at him, "Sorry for blaming you about that, I know it wasn't your fault." James's cheerful grin was back.

They noticed that their friends had gone oddly quiet, and they turned to see that none of them were there. James and Lily had got so distracted by one another they hadn't noticed the others leaving. Lily blushed.

"We should probably go find out where they disappeared to." Lily said staring animatedly at her hands. James chuckled at the use of the word disappeared, like they hadn't accidentally blocked out their friends to talk to one another.

They walked out of the great hall and towards the moving staircase in comfortable silence before Lily remembered the present she had received that morning from him.

"Thank you for my present," She said looking up at him. "It feels like your always getting me presents and I haven't gotten anything for you." They had stopped on the steps now, looking at each other.

"Lily you don't have to get me anything." James said lightly, he had not expected anything in return and that upset Lily, she didn't want their… their… thing? Yes their thing, she didn't want their thing to always be one sided.

She looked up and a thought crossed her mind, she pointed too it silently and James looked too. A small sprig of enchanted mistletoe was growing from the lip of the stair case above. James looked back at her shocked,

 _Are you really going to do this? You're probably a terrible kisser, you might scare him off_ Internal Lily taunted

 _Shut up!_ She told it.

James was still staring intently at her, not wanting to make the first move and frighten her away. But he needn't have, because at that moment Lily stretched up on tiptoes and pressed her lips too his. His mind went blank, and all he could think was how amazing it felt to finally be kissing her, he had dreamed about this moment for so long, and he could barely contain himself, he started kissing her back passionately, pushing her back into the wall. They eventually had to break apart to breathe, and James could not stop grinning.

"Happy Christmas James." Lily said smiling up at him.

"That was the best Christmas present so far," He told her and she blushed but could not stop grinning. "Therefore I have a very important question, it seems apparent to me that we both like each other rather much, in light of this, I have to ask, Lily Marie Evans, would you like to go out with me?" He asked it jokingly but there was a serious question behind his eyes, if he was rejected once more, that was it, he would never ask again.

"I would love to," She said, those beautiful, green eyes were bright and shining. He took her hand and they walked up to Gryffindor tower, smiling all the way.

88888888

Remus smiled stuffing his wand back into his robes, watching as his too friends walked away, hand in hand, he stared at the mistletoe that he had created and thanked it silently for doing its job. He had finally got them together, and with that thought in mind, it took all his self restraint not to skip back to Gryffindor tower.

 **A/N YAYAYAYAYAYAY they're finally together, but this is not the end! Don't leave me yet. However we are getting close, I know it's sad, please do try not to cry, but all good things must come to an end. Please do review; it really does help, even if you thought it was crap and want me to destroy every copy I have of it, don't stay silent, I want to know what you think!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N They're all together! Well all the characters I'd intended to get together, but we still have a few more chapters so who knows what could happen!**

Chapter 10

Lily didn't think she had ever been so happy, after about half a year of liking James and knowing that he liked her back they where finally together, she didn't know why it had taken them so long.

However the faces of everyone in the great hall, as they walked in hand in hand, were enough to make it all so much better. Everyone from 2nd years to the 7th years knew of the famous feud that had gone on between Lily Evans and James Potter. They could practically hear jaws dropping to the floor and up at the teachers table she could see Professors Flitwick and Sprout passing galleons to a very smug looking McGonagall.

Then came the cacophony of whispering, Lily hid slightly behind James arm, uncomfortable at being the centre of so many conversations. They sat opposite each other, talking and laughing all the way through breakfast, and soon the curious stares of the school started melting away and she happily concentrated on what James was saying.

Their friends joined them, Marlene and Sirius and Alice and Frank, Peter and Remus. They all happily chatted until the mail came. A large brown barn owl swooped down towards Lily dropping a letter in her lap and clipping the top of her head, aggressively.

"Ouch," She grumbled reproachfully, glaring at the owl as it soared off.

"You ok?" James asked her, he was worried about her; she smiled and nodded, touched by his concern. However when she opened the letter all her happy thoughts left her mind and were replaced by pain. Her hands were covered in a purple potion that when it connected with the skin caused it too become blistered and sore. She hissed in pain.

"Holy crap," James yelped, pouring water on her hands in an attempt to help sooth the burning. She whimpered uselessly. James, muttering curses under his breath, dashed with her out the hall to the hospital wing.

Madame Pomfrey had Lily fixed in no time but she had to bandage up her hands and keep her in the hospital wing for a couple of hours so she sent James to his lessons, refusing to let him stay, when he was resistant Lily too told him to go to his lesson and with a worried frown he left.

Madame Pomfrey left Lily, going into the office, muttering about unruly boys and their inability to listen to authority. Lily laughed quietly to herself but the laughter was short lived.

In swooped the large brown barn owl, new letter clutched in it claws.

 _Dear Mudblood,_

 _Did you enjoy your potion this morning, I hope you did, certainly looked that way from where I was sitting._

 _If you want to save your precious boyfriend you better meet me in the astronomy tower this evening at 6:00pm._

 _If you do not, bad things will happen to those you love._

 _Do not underestimate me; I will not fail in making your life a living hell._

Lily stared at the letter in shock, the fact that it had been sent without an envelope and the way the first sentence had been written suggested this had been sent by someone in Hogwarts, and the fact that it was the same owl from this morning suggested that the person who had sent her this had also sent her the letter containing the potion.

' _If you want to save your precious boyfriend'_ Well that sounded like someone was going to hurt James. Her heart flopped slightly at the thought of anyone hurting James.

She stared resolutely at the letter. No one was going to hurt her friends or ruin her life, if whoever it was that did this, wanted a fight; they were going to get a fight.

Lily heard Madame Pomfrey coming, and with great difficulty she shoved the letter into her pocket before the matron came over. Madame Pomfrey untied the bandages and showed lily her healed hands before sending her to her lessons.

Lily could not concentrate however and the day passed in a blur. Too soon it was 5:45, the end of lessons and everyone was making their way down to the Great Hall for supper. She however made her excuses and climbed up the stairs to the astronomy tower, one hand clutching the letter in one pocket and her wand in the other.

She stepped into the tower, looking round at the railings that stood round the open space. There where no windows so the room was drafty and cold, the light was fading but still there and she could see the Gryffindor Quidditch team practising on the pitch.

She walked over towards the edge of the room, but wheeled around suddenly when she heard the bang of the astronomy tower door. There was no one there.

"Accio cloak," She whispered, but no one appeared. Could it have been the wind? The cold metal railing was pressing into her back and she knew that if she looked over her shoulder she could see how far down it was to the floor and she shuddered. She didn't mind heights on her broom but she was a bit nervier when there was nothing to catch her fall.

"Mudblood," A voice whispered in the darkness, she froze, _that_ had definitely not been the wind. Her heart was now beating incredibly fast in her chest. "I did not think you would be so stupid as to come, when you knew death would be impending, or where you too stupid to realise that?" The darkness hissed.

Lily's heart jumped into her throat, this was no silly prank, whoever this was wanted to kill her. Her hand gripped her wand tighter.

"Who are you?" She questioned the darkness, trying to keep the tremble out her voice.

"That does not matter, the question is _what_ are you?" The darkness questioned, but did not wait for a reply. "You are dirt, you do not belong in our society, you are a Mudblood, the scum of the magical world, and it all scum must be destroyed, now its your turn." The voice jeered.

Before Lily could act, she was raised into the air, and lifted over the rail that had been digging into her back. She was as helpless as a marionette on strings, and as she floated out over the side of Hogwarts she heard the darkness whisper

"No one will even hear you scream,"

Lily felt the strings above snap, and she hurtled down to earth.

88888888

James grinned at the team, please with the progress they were making, Jane Howard was back on form, the beaters were finally working together and Sirius, Arthur and himself were working like never before, it was all going so well until towards the end of the session he saw Alice running onto the pitch.

He could tell something was wrong straight away, she was shaking, clutching herself as great sobs racked her small body. James flew down to her immediately.

"Lily." She said only one word before great sobs shook through her, he waited not a moment longer before tearing away towards the school, the wind whipping his face as his broom seemed to sense his urgency and carried him faster than ever before.

He flew through the doors, through the halls, not listening to the cries of annoyance and outrage from students and teachers alike. He burst through the hospital wing and he did not like what he saw.

A huge screen had been set up around one of the beds and he could see Madame Pomfrey fussing around a body, Dumbledore and McGonagall were discussing something, both very gravely. They both looked up when they heard James rush in and for the first time, Dumbledore looked wary.

"James…" He started but James barrelled past him and dash past the screen and looked at the body on the bed.

It was Lily and she was covered in blood.

James hand rose to his mouth to suppress the scream he wanted to unleash. Hands grasped he shoulders and pulled him back, turning him to face the owner of the hands. The piercing blue eyes stared into his own hazel eyes.

"Sir…" James started, but he was cut off.

"James, you must understand one crucial thing, Miss Evans is not dead," James felt the relief surge through his body. "However, she is in a very dangerous state." The relief was replaced with ice and James suddenly felt very numb.

"What happened?" He croaked out, his mouth was very dry.

"We are, regretfully, unsure. I have an idea but it distresses me to my very core. The facts of the matter are this: She was found below the astronomy tower, and we think it had been made to look like she had committed suicide." Dumbledore looked very solemn.

"Made to look like?" James questioned in a weak voice.

"Yes, that was my initial thought when I saw her, however we found a letter," He brandished a letter from the insides of his purple robes; the edges were tinged with blood. "It was told her to meet this person at the astronomy tower, the letter was threatening you," Dumbledore passed him the letter and James read it with shaking hands.

Lily had been trying to protect him and now she was hurt, he could throw himself off the astronomy tower for being so stupid, he'd seen she had been distracted today and he hadn't even asked her about it, he could've stopped this!

Dumbledore must've seen the pain and anger in his eyes and guessed his thoughts as he spoke quickly.

"James you have to know, this is not your fault." Dumbledore's eyes searched his.

"Who did this to her." James spoke, anger like he had never felt was coursing through him.

"I don't know, but we will find them." Dumbledore said warily.

"You mean," James was shook with barely constrained anger. "The person who did this is just waltzing around Hogwarts." Dumbledore looked at him evenly.

"I will find out, who did this." He promised to him and James anger suddenly depleted as though all the air had been let out of him like a popped balloon.

"What happened to her?" James asked weakly, dropping onto the bed behind him.

"Something quite miraculous," Dumbledore said and James was surprised to hear a level of pride in his voice, Dumbledore was impressed. "Something happened to Lily which resulted in her falling from the Astronomy tower." Dumbledore explained. "She had her wand on her and in the seconds she was falling she managed to charm the floor to be slightly bouncier and to slow herself down slightly enough not to kill her. James she will live but right now she is in critical condition."

"Please can I see her?" James begged. Dumbledore nodded and James got off the bed and walked through the screen once again.

Lily lay there, Madame Pomfrey had cleaned her up and she was no longer covered in blood and she appeared to be asleep.

"I put her in a magically induced coma…" Madame Pomfrey explained, "…it will help her mend." She placed a hand on his shoulder and walked away.

James stumbled into the chair by her side and stared, he couldn't believe it was her, she had been so alive this morning and to see her like this took the oxygen from his lungs. Over the next few hours he was completely unaware of anything that happened, he knew friends and teachers came and went, he knew Madame Pomfrey tried to make him leave but he could not be moved, in the end she extended the screen to fit two beds so he could sleep beside her. He moved only to wash, his friends brought him food from the great hall but he ate very little.

Lily had shattered most of the bones in her body and she had several ruptured organs, it was two weeks before Madame Pomfrey had finished mending her, James was there the whole time.

"Potter, you have to remember it may take a while for her to come round, she may not open her eyes immediately, if she does that means she may have been aware of your presence this whole time but I'm still not sure of the extent of some of her injuries." Madame Pomfrey explained delicately, as though she was worried she might break him.

James nodded and looked down at Lily's pale hand, rubbing soothing circles around her knuckle.

"Okay," Madame Pomfrey said, taking a deep breath, "One, two, and three…" She waved her wand over Lily's limp body. A fog rose from within her, through the of the hospital bed and was sucked back into Madame Pomfrey's wand, James searched Lily's face desperately. She twitched

And then Lily opened her beautiful green eyes.

 **A/N I am sooooooo sorry this took so long, I kinda forgot about it. More chapters on the way.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N Hellooooooooooooooo, I am so sorry about how long its taken me to write these past few chapters as I have been MEGA busy, like, the mother of all busy's to ever busy the busy. Anyway…**

Chapter 11

When Lily opened her eyes, James never thought he'd been so happy, not when he'd got his first broomstick, or the first time he'd changed into his animagus form, not even when he had kissed Lily under the mistletoe and she had agreed to go out with him, none of that compared to his elated heart. He had to exercise all his self restraint not to jump up and waltz Madame Pomfrey round the hospital wing. However, things had gone downhill from there, although Lily's physical state was impeccable (Due to Madame Pomfrey's thoroughness) her mental state was fragile at best. She only slept when Madame Pomfrey gave her draughts for dreamless sleeps as without them she was plagued with nightmares and she would wake screaming herself hoarse. She was nervous of any of her visitors bar The Marauders, Alice, Marlene, Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore, anyone else caused her to be twitchy and jumpy and in the end Madame Pomfrey started shooing away well-wishers as they made Lily so distressed.

He only had one thing to be thankful for and that was that she was _alive._ As soon as he had seen her he had been so scared that she was dead or that she would never awake from the coma she was in, that seeing her smile and laugh at Sirius clowning around, charming Marlene's hair different colours while she was wasn't paying attention or playing chess with Remus, gave him an ecstatic feeling.

But under it all he saw her lovely green eyes, and he saw that while they were usually alight with happiness or curiosity, they were darkened with pain.

Whenever she did have visitors the whole gang was very protective and The Marauders were not afraid to tell anyone to leave if they thought they were distressing Lily too much. But they could all see the slow recovery, she saw more visitors, laughed, ate and slept more and with less nightmares. It seemed she was well on the way to recovery until roughly a month after her incident.

A specialist from St Mungo's had come in after Lily had woken up, Alicia Bright was a specialist in trauma and had suggested ways for Lily to try and help herself heal. One of the suggestions was to set herself a goal and in the end they had come up with Lily going to a feast come three weeks. You could see how scared Lily was at the prospect but it had helped and come three weeks Lily was stood at the door of the hospital wing, dressed in her robes. It had seemed fine, she had opened the door grabbed his hand and they had walked to the entrance hall however as soon as they got he knew something was wrong.

As soon as they had stepped out the hospital wing he could see she was shaking slightly but she had pulled him along determined to face her fear, face the school and in the school, her attacker. As soon as that thought had entered her head she had started trembling violently her breath coming in short gasps and her eyes were wide with fear and panic. Madame Pomfrey had warned James something like this may and could happen at any moment and so she had taught him how to deal with her. He brought her over to the side of the corridor and made her sit down, and he helped her get her breathing under control, brushing the tears away from her face and pulling her back up to her feet, holding her hand and gently guiding her back to the Hospital wing in companionable silence.

He could see how disappointed she was at herself for failing her goal and it was a while before either of them did anything much.

Lily was sick, sick and tired of being this poor damsel in distress, this poor little girl who couldn't face the entire school because of one person. She was angry, angry at herself for being so weak and she had to let it out some how. Lily picked up the teacup beside her bed, it was a beautiful, fragile little cup and it enraged her. She picked up the small little cup fingering it delicately before whipping round and lobbing it with all her force at the wall opposite her. It smashed into many tiny pieces and spread across the floor in a sea of broken fragments.

James head had snapped up at that, Madame Pomfrey had told him that Lily may become angry, annoyed at her lack of progress and she had told him to try to calm her. But in that moment, when he looked at Lily, saw the anger and pain and mistrust lurking behind her eyes as they watered, he knew that by calming her it would only suppress the anger for another day when it would come bubbling back up, more aggressive and violent then. So he drew his wand, pointed it at the shattered pieces and muttered a quick _reparo._ The teacup knit back to together and he stooped to pick it up before placing it back in the hurt redhead's hands.

"Get it all out." He murmured to her, staring at the teacup in her hands, she looked at him touched by his understanding and kissed him, it was quick and sweet and she smiled before raising her arm again and destroying the poor teacup again.

They smashed the teacup until Lily wasn't angry anymore and she laughed at his silly jokes while they sat in her bed in the infirmary, side by side. She had her head on his shoulder and he could sense her drifting off.

"I love you James." She whispered, marvelling how easy and carefree and _true_ __it was.

"I love you too Lily." He whispered back as she drifted off into the first peaceful slumber she had had since the incident.

88888888

"How is she Prongs?" Sirius whispered to James, The Gang (Everyone had just started calling them the gang as Marlene, Lily, Alice and Frank were not part of The Marauders but they all hung around together so the Hogwarts gossip mill had just dubbed them 'The Gang') had all realised what had happened when neither of them had shown for dinner.

"She's doing better, but that meal was too big a step, she wasn't ready." He told him quietly, Sirius didn't have to be James best friend to see the concern on his face. "But because she couldn't do it she's upset with herself, she's not angry anymore; we sorted that out last night, just upset." Sirius's eyebrows rose into his hairline when James said that and he was about to congratulate his best friend on _finally_ shagging Lily Evans when James saw Sirius's train of thought and elbowed him in the side. "Not like that you dirty minded twat." He said rolling his eyes at Sirius's signature 'but you love me really' grin. McGonagall could have drawn that face she saw it so well.

School had not yet begun again as they were still in the Christmas holiday's so, so far James had gotten away with staying with Lily everyday, but the end of the Holiday's was fast approaching, nobody quite knew what was going to happen, apart from James: He was not leaving Lily's side until she returned to classes with him. The teachers of course were going to try and get him to go to there lesson but the annoying truth about James Potter was that he could skip every one of your lessons and at the end of it you'd still be handing him back a test with it graded 'outstanding', because James really was exceptionally bright, he was even a year ahead for his transfiguration, and as long as he handed in the homework in on time he didn't tend to get into too much trouble (Schoolwork related that was, for everything else he was _always_ in trouble for something).

"I've got to go, Me and Marlene are headed into Hogsmeade for Butterbeer's and I need to stock up on Dungbombs." Sirius told him.

"Marlene and I," James corrected chuckling at Sirius's rolling eyes and grumbles about how he was turning into Remus. "Have fun." He told him.

At that point he heard Lily come out of the bathroom attached to the infirmary, and walk over to the two beds behind the screen that they were sharing.

When Madame Pomfrey had come in to wake them both up for some breakfast that morning she had gasped and dropped the tray of food she was holding at the sight of the two of them snuggled up in Lily's bed. They had both woken up at the loud noise and Lily had gone as red as the roots of her hair. It was a while before Madame Pomfrey was satisfied that they were both fully clothed and nothing "Completely inappropriate and unsuitable for wizards and witches your age." had gone on, she had cleared up the tray and gone to get them so more food. Later when they had been eating the breakfast Lily had gasped, and told him that she thought Madame Pomfrey had slipped a contraception potion into her pumpkin juice, judging from the strange smell and texture of it. Lily not being a morning person at best and angered by her recent failure had jumped off the bed and slid through a gap in the screen to shriek at Madame Pomfrey "I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH JAMES POTTER!" Only to turn around and find Professor McGonagall standing behind her, with a shocked and slightly bemused expression on her face. Lily had flushed a shade of red that could have rivalled a fire truck, grabbed her robes and rushed into the bathroom.

"I'll see you later then." Sirius said to James and ducked out through the screen, told Lily that she radiant and left the Hospital wing, whistling cheerfully.

Lily had come over sat down on the bed next to James and looked up at him determinedly.

"I want to go out into the grounds today." She told him firmly. He grinned at her and kissed her nose, he was so proud of her and he realised it helped him understand what was going on in her head. She couldn't face the school because she knew that the person who tried to kill her was there, she was better but still nervous of her visitors because she knew it could be them, although it probably wasn't and she was okay with going out into the grounds because she had more control: She could stay away from people or she could talk to them, it was up to her and as they left the wing he could see the Gryffindor courage rising up in her.

They strolled around the grounds, talking casually. They talked about the Hogwarts gossip mill and all the crazy stories it had churned up in Lily's absence, most of which involved ridiculous stories of James hexing Lily for not sleeping with him. These were quickly dispelled when people pointed out how dedicated too Lily James was and, more obviously, that Lily Evans would not take being hexed without said hexer losing genitals. Lily had grinned at that, glad to not be losing her fiery reputation. They talked about seventh year and what happened after, realising they both wanted to become Aurors, they talked and talked and along the way, they realised that this was something special, they were both similar but not too much so that they cancelled each other, they had opinions that were strong that they could debate heatedly, and they had opinions that were weak, that they were open to discuss and change their point of view.

They were just arguing over which Quidditch team was better: The Holyhead Harpies or The Tutshill Tornadoes when they reached Hagrid's hut and were invited in for tea which they accepted but declined the rock cakes for the sake of their teeth.

Lily never figured her first date with James would be a simple walk round the Hogwarts grounds, though she never believed she would ever be with a guy like James she had often liked to let her mind wander (This was of course only as soon as she realised she was in love with James Potter and that was pretty much only at the start of sixth year so she hadn't had that much time to think) and the imaginary dates tended to involve roses, ball gowns, swelling music and a kiss so fabulous it quite literally blew your socks off. But this was so simple, it was perfect, she knew so much more about him now; he was scared of jellyfish, he loved cats and his favourite season was winter because he liked wearing jumpers. Granted they may be stupid things that she would never need in life, apart from teasing him with jellyfish that was, but now she felt so much closer to him and she couldn't stop grinning.

88888888

After their escapade round the grounds Lily continued to improve and a couple of days later she had a meal in the great hall, with The Gang reunited it was a loud and hilarious affair and involved Sirius chucking one of Fillybuster's wet-start, no heat fireworks into a jug of pumpkin juice on the Slytherin table, Lily couldn't decide whether Sirius did it to show off his chaser skills or to annoy the Slytherin's who were subsequently drenched with pumpkin juice and shrieking as the fireworks exploded in front of their faces. In the end she decided it was probably a bit of both. She slept in her own bed in Gryffindor tower and she started school with everyone else, everything had pretty much gone back to normal.

Until, she had seen the owl.

Lily, Marlene and Alice had been walking to the entrance hall for breakfast,

Marauderless as Sirius had slept in and the other three were doing their best to wake him, when she had spotted it. Sitting proudly on end of a staircase, there was no mistaking the big, brown barn owl; this was the one that had been plaguing Lily's sleep.

"Lily, are you okay?" Marlene asked, noticing that Lily had stopped dead in her tracks. When she didn't answer Marlene looked around and saw a large brown owl sitting on the staircase, she looked back at Lily who was staring at the bird in horror.

"Lily?" Alice asked uncertainly.

"That's it," Lily had whispered, her voice shaking. "That's the owl that brought me the letters."

Marlene dived for the creature but it took off before she could catch it. Lily was frozen to the spot, staring ahead. At that point James intervened, The Marauders had been making their way down to the entrance hall, when James had looked down the and seen his girlfriend on the staircase below his. Of course the most logical way to get to her was to drop from the staircase he was on to hers. And he did, landing slightly staggered in front of her, he lifted his arms in the air as he straightened out, like a gymnast. Sirius raised his wand into the air and shot a silver 6 into the air.

"Six! Six! Did you see that recovery?! That was at least an 8!" James yelled up to his friends, they were all laughing at him as were most of the people standing round; after all, he was one of the most popular people in school.

Lily couldn't help herself she grinned, shaking her head at her stupid boyfriend, his glasses were lopsided and she straightened them out before pressing a kiss to his lips.

"What did you think?" He questioned her.

"Well you almost took out an innocent bystander and that innocent bystander happened to be me so I think a 2."

"2!" James howled, scandalised. Lily giggled at his outraged face, and like _that_ the owl was forgotten. By this point the rest of The Marauders and Frank had made there way down to the girls and The Gang were off. Sirius was betting Marlene 10 sickles he could slide down the banister, standing up, without falling off or getting caught. He made it half way down before peeves threw a chair at his head, which missed, however it caused him to loose his balance, fall from the banister and roll down the last few steps to land in a crumpled heap at McGonagall's feet. Marlene rushed down to check he was alright however McGonagall beat her too it, as soon as she was sure he wasn't hurt she started screeching at him like a banshee, several people covered there ears.

The Gang sidled past, hoping to avoid McGonagall's early morning wrath, and made it into the hall for breakfast. Sirius came in five minutes later with a detention for a month, however still painfully chirpy.

And again they were all happy until the mail came.

Once again the mail came streaming in, Lily looked up to see if Cassia had brought her anything, but was distracted again by a large, brown, barn owl. Her eyes never left it until it finally landed at the Slytherin table, on _Alecto Carrow's_ shoulder, he reached up to stroke the pet, and then his eyes widened and he stared over at Lily.

Lily screamed.

 **A/N We are getting close to the end now, only one or two chapters left I'm afraid, however, have no fear for more writing is here (Well on the way, what?! I wanted to make it rhyme, so sue me!) Please do follow me as an author as I am going to continue writing stories, there probably only going to be one-shots at first until I have some more free time to write a longer story, there may even be a sequel to this of their seventh year, who knows? The stories will most likely all be Jily as they are my favourite ship. So long…**

 **P.S I am thinking of changing the title of the story as I don't think 'wishes' really suits it, so if you see a story come up in your alerts under a completely different name this may well be it. Bye.**

 **The Bookworm xx**


	12. Chapter 12

A/N Flumph. Also in the last chapter, I made a mistake, I said that she saw the owl land on Alecto Carrow however she saw the owl land on Amycus Carrow, that's who threw her (tried to) off the tower Chapter 12 All heads swivelled to look at Lily, at her wide staring eyes, Marlene who was sitting opposite turned and saw who Lily was looking at, saw the owl and _click,_ Lily could practically hear the penny drop. Her eyes widen and she stood quickly. "You!" She screeched across the hall, loud and shrill enough to rival the Bandon Banshee. Amycus Carrow had jumped to his feet and dashed out the hall, Marlene hot on his heels chasing after him, whilst shouting over her shoulder at Sirius "It was him, him!" Lily was flashing back to the night she had fallen from the astronomy tower and she realised Carrow's voice matched the hissing darkness. Anger coursed through her, she was done being a damsel in distress, a fragile teacup. Nobody, NOBODY threw Lily Evans off a tower. "Come on James," She shouted over her shoulder racing out the hall, by this point many of the teachers were down from there sits and Alice was explaining everything to Dumbledore with wide, scared eyes, Frank standing behind her holding her hand protectively. But Lily was out of there and the adrenaline pumping through her blood, causing her dash off, but a hand grabbed hers pulling her to a stop. "James! What the hell, we have t…" But she was abruptly stopped by James pulling out a large, old piece of parchment and giving her a 'would-you-stop-running-around-like-a-headless-chicken' look, that had her breathless with annoyance, (that took her back to the years before when she was always breathless with annoyance at James) "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," James said and dark lines began to spread across the page. "This is the Marauders Map; it tells us where everyone in the school is at all times, its how we've gotten away with so much in the past, and look," He pointed to three dots chasing down the grounds towards the forbidden forest. "Come on!" Lily said grabbing James hand, dragging him away out the front doors and dashing away over the grass, towards the three figures, flashes of light dancing between them. As they ran towards the three figures she saw Amycus was slowing down rapidly, his movements becoming sloppier, it looked like a sleeping curse had just grazed him causing his movements to be sluggish. She pulled out her wand. "Stupefy!" She screamed, the flash of red light shot at Amycus, narrowly missing Marlene's left ear and hit Amycus square in the face, he crumpled to the floor. Sirius and Marlene turned to face them. "Thanks Evans, man he was getting annoying." Sirius complained, sweating slightly. "Annoying?!" Marlene screeched, "He tried to kill Lily!" She said pointing at Lily who was breathing heavily and glaring at Amycus's unconscious body with disgust. It was at this point that Dumbledore and McGonagall arrived, Alice, Frank, Remus and Peter hot on their heels, the latter hunched over struggling to breath, and immediately began hovering Amycus's body onto a stretcher to take up to Dumbledore's office. Lily could practically feel the weight off her shoulders. That was it no more crazy nutters running around trying to kill her, no more anxiety, no more… James noticed Lily almost sagging with relief and turned to her, her eyes were bright, freedom and happiness shining in them. He kissed her, his arms lacing around her waist, and it was a kiss to knock his socks off, he swung her around, breaking apart to laugh. When he placed her back down on the ground all The Gang were grinning at them, Sirius was smiling at him conspiratorially. "Ah Lily, if only you knew for how long dear old Prongsie has wanted to do that." Sirius sighed chuckling at James blush and Lily's affectionately patting him on the cheek. "Well no point standing around." Alice murmured with a smile, lacing her hand into Frank's and turned to begin trudging back towards the castle. Marlene and Sirius turned to each other in unison and said 'Race yah?' waiting only a moment to laugh at themselves before dashing off. James waited till they were all out of earshot. "You know your gonna have to go and testify that it was him that tried to kill you." James murmured, rubbing soothing circles into the back of her hand. "Yeah, I know." She replied with a sigh. "It'll probably take them a while to bring him around, so I'll go up to Dumbledore's office in a bit." "That was some powerful magic back there. I hope I never get on the wrong side of that wand again." He said, looking at her sideways and smiling at Lily's grin knowing, however, nothing was going to stop him from making sure the smile always remained on Lily's face. They continued to chat all the way back up to the castle, until they reached the entrance hall where they found Sirius and Marlene bent double panting like dogs, with the rest of The Gang standing around watching amusedly as they argued over who had won the race. In the end Marlene shot a useful speechless jinx at him and claimed the victory when he could not argue with her. _**As they walked through the corridors Lily noticed the reproachful glares of James and Sirius's fan club and she couldn't help the small grin that tugged at her lips as James held on to her hand, which was a much different approach to Marlene, fierce and unashamed, who stared them down till they looked away from her and Sirius, who had his arm slung over her shoulders, even Alice was getting some glares although she timidly looked down, unhappy with upsetting so many people, after all, Frank was very attractive and still had his own, slightly smaller fan club.**_ Lily looked around at her friends and grinned. She couldn't help but be fiercely happy, as she looked up at the boy walking next to her with the jet black hair, bespectacled hazel eyes and lively smile, knowing she wasn't going to let this one slip through her fingers…The End. **A/N That's it my dears, I do hope you've enjoyed it and I apologise about how small this last chapter has been, like I said before please do follow me as an author as I am going to continue writing stories and I may even write a sequel to this, who knows… Catch yah later.** **The Bookworm x**


End file.
